Happenings on the Ranch

If you saw my post warning those of you that live within the city limits of Kansas City on the Missouri side that the city council was working to pass an ordinance regarding urban ag, here’s a follow up.

After an outpouring of emails and phone calls with folks unhappy about the proposed ordinance, the city council modified the code slightly to be a bit more accomodating while still trying to make the higher end neighborhood associations happy.  While the ordinance is not perfect it’s better, and the council is required to review the code again in 6 to 12 months.  Here’s what was changed in the new ordinance:

- Home gardeners can sell their excess produce from their home, no permits required.
- Community gardens can sell produce on-site.
- Market gardens (defined as Crop Agriculture) can have employees, but need a special use permit to sell on-site.
- “Row crops” are now allowed but no one that sells on-site can grow row crops in their front yard.  So, essentially, you can grow row crops in your front yard so long as you don’t sell it on-site, but you can take it off-site for sale.  If you want to sell on-site, you can’t grow row crops.  Make sense?
- Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) needs a Special Use Permit to operate in residential districts. If you get a special use permit, you can run your CSA, have on-site sales, and accept apprentices and interns. (Big step forward from the previous version of the ordinance).

Overall, the ordinance changes are much better but still strict enough to make the neighborhood associations happy.  I see it as a nice compromise.  Yay for urban agriculture!