On Monday, October 2, the Olympia Planning Commission received an update on projects and analysis to develop concrete strategies and actions around urban agriculture within the city.
Community Planning and Development Director Leonard Bauer, Thurston Conservation District (TCD) Communications and Education Manager Nora Carman-White, and Community Agriculture Programs Coordinator Tina Wagner provided an overview of their work related to the city's urban farming comprehensive plan.
Bauer explained that this initiative stemmed from Olympia Comprehensive Plan GL 25, which outlines various actions that support promoting urban farming for economic health, self-sufficiency, and environmental reasons.
The city formed the Urban Farm Working Group in June 2020 to address local food production and security policies. The group has mapped existing access to locally grown food and identified gaps in Olympia's local food system.
The workgroup also recommended various policies to ensure the Olympia community can easily access places for growing food.
To accomplish the goal and policies, the city entered into an agreement with the Thurston Conservation District with three key tasks:
Nora Carman-White, Thurston Conservation District Communications and Education manager, said the conservation district has been meeting with community garden partners to understand the challenges and opportunities. They compiled this information as a "needs assessment" and an "asset map" of their area's community garden resources. She added that this work aligns with the Urban Farm Working Group's farmland analysis that mapped agricultural land and potential farmland within the city.
Additionally, the district conservation closely reviewed documents of the city's parks plan, specifically the equity index elements that analyze access to green space. Carman-White said they are factoring information from these sources into their planning for new community gardens.
She also mentioned that the conservation district expanded its capacity by hiring Tina Wagner as the Community Agriculture Programs coordinator.
TCD is also helping to revamp the community court garden space, created five years ago but neglected during the COVID pandemic.
In addition, TCD has a couple of sites to build new gardens in 2024 with finalized plans.
Another initiative Carman-White mentioned is creating a garden ambassador program, where each garden will have a paid position to support the community for garden needs.
Wagner discussed connecting private vacant lots with farmers through the "Farm My Yard" program. She explained that the program matches landowners with underutilized large lots to farmers seeking space and expands access for new and beginning farmers.
The program is connected with the Olympia vacant lot registry, which offers owners an alternative to prevent their lands from sitting idle and deteriorating.
Wagner added that the program helps reduce farmland loss in the urban core and supports sustainable local agriculture.
"We've made a successful match already with a local landowner in southeast Olympia who owns a property in agriculture. They have a beautiful garden. Despite intense pressure to develop their land, they don't want it to become a new development. So, we were able to match them with a farmer that wanted to expand their program," Wagner announced.
Bauer analyzed sources like the American Farmland Trust checklist and recommendations from other jurisdictions, where they identified potential barriers such as zoning, water access, and support structures, and made recommendations to address them.
For zoning, Bauer told the commissioners that urban farming is allowed in Olympia, except only in the downtown.
"For commercial scale, greenhouse or nursery, then that requires conditional use permit," Bauer said. "We did not have any specific standards in our zoning prohibitive to agriculture."
Bauer admitted that water is difficult in urban settings. "We do have a few properties in town that still have wells for irrigation water, but in most cases, most properties, the water availability is through the city's municipal water utility. That requires installing a meter, which is an expensive proposition."
However, Bauer cited that the city council passed a separate water rate for irrigation use for agriculture.
He added that the city is also exploring other options like hydrant meters for temporary water sources, at least during the dry season.
The CPD director mentioned that support structures like barns, sheds, and chicken coops posed potential barriers to urban agriculture.
He explained that converting existing structures on a property to a new agricultural use could trigger requirements to install infrastructure like sidewalks under the zoning code's definition of a "change of use."
Bauer added that building new agricultural structures may also trigger infrastructure upgrades.
He recommended exempting agricultural uses from being defined as a "change of use" to avoid triggering expensive infrastructure requirements that are unnecessary for a farming operation.
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