Thanks to the voices of Oakland gardeners like you, our city is one step away from approving changes to our urban agriculture policy that would make it easier for everyone to grow and sell food. 

Last week, Oakland City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee approved amendments to the City’s Zoning Policies that will make it easier and cheaper to have urban farms and gardens in Oakland. The items are moving on to to the full City Council’s Consent Calendar on November 5. Will you join us on Wednesday, November 5 at 5:30 p.m. to show City Council that Oakland residents believe growing food is a right? You can also contact your council person to voice your support for the policy changes.

Last month, the City of Oakland passed the first hurdle to becoming a more urban farmer-friendly city when the Oakland Planning Commission passed an update to the City’s Agricultural Regulations that recognizes planting and raising food and livestock as a right, not a conditional privilege requiring a permit. Now, the proposal is moving onto the Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee.

The update would empower our city to grow and raise our own food in a few major ways. It makes it easier for anyone to start growing food by changing the definition of a community garden from land cultivated by “more than one” to “one or more” persons.

In addition, the changes remove the lengthy and expensive permitting process that used to be required for raising and selling food on a lot by designating certain agricultural activities as “permitted outright.” These activities include growing fruits, vegetables, and herbs; keeping up to three beehives; and, in some areas, selling those food products on- or off-site. This means any community garden less than one acre in size no longer has to apply for a Conditional Use Permit, a process that could cost thousands of dollars and take several months.