Friday, August 17, 2012
The ordinance allows for raising hens, keeping bees, selling eggs and growing produce.
The Somerville Board of Aldermen Thursday approved an ordinance that allows for urban farming and agriculture, such as raising chickens, keeping bees and growing produce for sale. In expressly allowing certain types of urban agriculture, the ordinance also outlines permitting, public health and best-practices requirements associated with farming in the city. If you want to keep bees or raise chickens in Somerville, you'll need to get a permit to do so. If you want to grow produce to sell, you don't need a permit, but you will need to get your soil tested for lead and other contaminants, and you'll only be able to sell fresh, unprocessed produce. The ordinance does not apply to people who garden and grow fruits and vegetables for their own …
Thursday, August 16, 2012
The ordinance would govern things like raising chickens, keeping bees and growing fruits and vegetables.
The Somerville Board of Aldermen may vote Thursday night on an ordinance that would govern urban agriculture and farming in the city—we're talking about things like raising chickens, keeping bees, growing produce and starting hydroponics and aquaponics operations. Aldermen and city staffers have been drafting the proposed ordinance, and it's been in the Board of Aldermen's Land Use Committee since April. Members of the Land Use Committee kept the matter in committee after an Aug. 8 meeting, but they were scheduled to take up the ordinance again on Wednesday. There was some scuttlebutt before Wednesday's committee meeting that the whole Board of Aldermen would vote on the matter Thursday. Somerville Patch will provide an update after …
Friday, May 18, 2012
Urban agriculture fans voiced support for a proposed ordinance that would allow farming in Somerville.
Khrysti Smyth, who lives near Porter Square, has eight chickens in her back yard. They live in a chicken coop she built herself, and she raises them for the eggs. "I have a huge waiting list, just amongst my friends, of people who want eggs, locally grown eggs," Smyth told the Somerville Planning Board and the Somerville Board of Aldermen's land use committee Thursday night. Chickens are becoming her life's work, she said, joking that "I've sort of become a chicken concierge" because she provides chicken-raising advice to others in Somerville and around Boston. (She blogs at thechickeness.blogspot.com.) Smyth spoke at a public hearing about a proposed zoning ordinance that would allow urban farming in Somerville. Yes, Somerville: the most …
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
The city is holding a public hearing about a proposal to allow community farms and other forms of urban agriculture in Somerville.
Somerville is considering an ordinance that would promote urban agriculture in the city, and it's holding a public hearing on the matter Thursday. The ordinance would "create a framework for residential, community and commercial farming within city limits," according to an annoucement released by the city in April. The announcement said it would encourage things like hydroponics and aquaponics, which allow urban farmers to raise things like vegetables and fish in warehouse space. The public is invited to attend Thursday's hearing and comment on the proposed ordinance. The hearing is being held by a joint meeting of the Somerville Planning Board and the Somerville Board of Aldermen's land use committee. A description of the ordinance says …
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wenzday
5:41 pm on Monday, August 20, 2012
urban farming was ALREADY happening in Somerville. Also, i am dismayed that the aldermen didn't even take the needs of existing urban farms into account when they wrote this regulation. more ›