Protect working landscapes - agriculture and forestry - by adopting an ordinance or incentivizing one or more of the following:
Best Practice of this action
Rating Guideline
 |
Identify priority agricultural resources within and surrounding the city; adopt land use ordinances that encourage compact development and limit sprawl into agricultural land; incentivize dual-use solar or agrivoltaics; provide. Report density and infill projects under BP 7; adoption of urban growth boundary under BPA 10.2. |
 |
Create at least one permanent agriculture or forest district; work with a private landowner to provide land access for incubator farmers and/or emerging farmers; create a transfer of development rights (TDR) program for protecting priority agricultural land; require solar development on the built environment, brownfields, or marginal agricultural land, before siting solar projects on productive farmland. Report solar ordinances under BPA 26.7. |
 |
Lease city land in 5-year terms or longer to community gardens, urban farms, or incubator farms for emerging farmers; require mitigation for solar that displaces farming from productive agricultural land. Report promotion of public food production/distribution under BPA 27.3. |
Resources
- Agriculture and Forest Protection:
- Minnesota Model Ordinances for Sustainable Development - Agriculture and Forest Protection District, Local Food Production District, Performance Standards for Minor and Major Agricultural Retail (MPCA, 2009)
- See BPA 25.5 for a guide to urban agriculture on remediated brownfield sites
- American Farmland Trust has resources on smart solar siting for local governments that balances renewable energy development with agriculture
- Local Food Production:
- Municipal Zoning for Local Foods in Iowa: A Guidebook for Reducing Local Regulatory Barriers to Local Foods (Iowa State University Extension, 2015) has examples from around the country
- Growing Local: A Community Guide to Planning for Agriculture and Food Systems (2017, American Farmland Trust)
- Incubators and Emerging Farmers:
- Emerging Farmers include “women, veterans, persons with disabilities, American Indian or Alaskan Natives, members of a community of color, young, and urban.” The State of Minnesota created the Emerging Farmers Working Group in 2020
- 30 Incubators and Funding Resources for Farms and Food (Food Tank, 2018)
- Resources about land access including lease agreements and legal fact sheets (Cornell, 2011)
Sublist
a. An agriculture and forest protection district.
b. A local food production district.
c. Incubator farms, emerging farmers, and land access.
Order Number
1