January 29, 2008
Guest article from Sophia Pagoulatos, City of FresnoPlanning & Development Department and 2007 ROC Planning Fellow.
I used to lead a double life: a land use planner by day, issuing permits and holding meetings, and a “foodie” by night: going to farmers markets and food festivals on the weekends, on the lookout for the latest new vegetable. However, in 2007, these two worlds collided and I am now occasionally able to talk broccoli right here in my cubicle in the City of Fresno’s Planning and Development Department without eliciting too many strange looks.
What happened to cause this shift?
Last year, as I was going through the stack of public notices, permits and code updates in my in-box, something caught my eye: a carrot. That’s right, it was this little orange carrot on a flyer. It said “Roots of Change.” Interesting. I had to find out more. Now here was something: an organization dedicated to sustainable food systems soliciting participation from a land use planner. I wanted to find out what sustainable food system folks wanted with an urban planner, so I applied and was accepted as a Planning Fellow.
You can bet this provoked more than one curious look from my co-workers. I was going to go sit on a farm for 9 days and talk to sustainable food system advocates from around the state. What was going on?
Actually, a lot was going on, and it was perfect timing. In April of 2007, Fresno’s Mayor Autry and Council President Perea rolled out the “Fresno Green Strategy” which lays the groundwork for creating a healthier and more environmentally friendly city. One of the 25 strategies that make up the plan promotes locally grown and organic foods. I thought this was an extremely important step, as I have always lamented living in one of the most agriculturally productive areas of the globe and not being able to see that manifested in the urban environment. My dream has always been to have a walkable, edible city, where one could nibble the seasonal harvest while walking to the corner store, for example, and where farmers markets and community gardens abounded.
While my dream is still not a reality, becoming a Roots of Change Planning Fellow enabled me to learn about the food system in California from many different perspectives, and to make important local connections with leaders in the system to begin to make changes. One of those changes is to make the Fresno zoning code more food friendly. Farmers markets were simply not included or defined in the code, causing difficulties for any farmers markets to become established. Of the six largest cities in California, Fresno has the fewest farmers markets, when it ought to have the most, given the agricultural productivity. So a farmer’s market task force has been created, and we are currently working on amending the code.
On a larger scale, some interesting ideas are being considered for the Southeast Growth Area, the new growth area for Fresno, expected to accommodate a population of at least 55,000 people by the year 2025. With the assistance of planning consultants Calthorpe and Associates, neighborhood centers that include farmers markets are being sketched out on the drawing board, as well as community gardens, agricultural parks, cultivated greenbelts and organic agricultural buffers. The idea of all this is to bring the country into the city; to use Fresno’s agricultural heritage as a major placemaking component in the development of new urban spaces, in addition to expanding the local food system.
On the regional scale at the Fresno Council of Governments, two farmland studies are underway: one to identify and map strategic farmland, and the other to develop a model farmland conservation program. And on the national level, the American Planning Association rolled out a new policy guide on food planning. Recognizing the threat of continuing low density residential development to farmland, the excessive energy being used to grow food in one place and transport it very long distances, and deteriorating health and diet of the American population, the APA has produced a policy guide for the creation of local and regional food systems. Here was the official marriage of land use planning and food!
When I gave a presentation on food planning and Roots of Change to the Fresno Planning Commission last October, at least two members requested copies: seems they were hungry for more (pardon the pun). There is much more to do in order to create an equitable local food system in Fresno, but the work has begun, the connections are being made, and Roots of Change has been an excellent support.
So now if I talk arugula in my office, no one even blinks. It seems that bureaucracy and bok choy can actually co-exist after all!
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