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Front Yard Landscape / Garden Issue
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Sacramento's existing front yard landscape ordinance, which limits landscapes to “primarily low growing groundcover or turf,” makes it illegal to grow most annuals and perennials - including fruits and vegetables - in Sacramento's front yards.
Scheduled to go before the Sacramento City Council on April 3rd, the current proposed ordinance revision continues to regulate fruits and vegetables by limiting them to 30% of the landscaped area and four feet in height. (Restricting the growing of tomatoes, beans, peas and other edibles in front yards.)
Not only are front yard garden options critical when backyards are unsuitable for growing food, but diverse landscapes can also help address energy conservation, resource depletion, hunger, food security, and environmental issues.
Show Your Support for Front Yard Gardens !!
Call, write, or e-mail the Mayor and your City Councilmember:
Ask them to support environmentally friendly and sustainable landscapes by adopting the proposed ordinance language with the deletion of Section C, which restricts fruits and vegetables. (Further information on back.)
Attend the Sacramento City Council meeting:
Date: Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Council Chambers in City Hall 915 I Street
Share this information with family, friends, and fellow gardeners.
Background Information:
On April 3rd, 2007 the Sacramento City Council will vote on the proposed revision of the Front Yard Landscape Ordinance 17.68.010. The existing code restricts front yard landscapes to “primarily low groundcover or turf.” City staff have proposed that the new code language include annuals, perennials, grass, and other diverse landscaping; however Section C of the proposed ordinance arbitrarily restricts the growing of fruit and vegetables to 30% of the landscaped setback area, and limits the height to four feet (with the exception of fruit trees).
This issue has peaked community interest and many residents are concerned about having options for what they can grow in their front yards. On January 11, 2007 the Sacramento City Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend adoption of the proposed code language with the deletion of Section C.
Sacramento has committed to making the city more sustainable. Valuable city resources are currently being directed towards programs for water conservation, water quality (toxic lawn chemical contamination of local rivers and streams), and green waste management. Adopting new code language that supports diverse urban landscapes in Sacramento's front yards will not only help address crucial environmental issues, but will help Sacramento meet its sustainability goals.
Food security and hunger are also current concerns that can be addressed through home gardens. As many backyards are unsuitable for growing food, the option of front yard gardening is critical. Any limitations on growing edible landscapes restricts a family's access to needed food.
Why Diverse Landscapes Instead of Conventional Landscapes?
- Conventional landscape equipment creates 5% of the nation's air pollution and mowing a lawn for just one hour with a gas mower pollutes the air as much as driving a car 350 miles!
- Average urban gardens can produce several hundred pounds of food a year, and supplement family food budgets with affordable, fresh, and optimally nutritious food.
- Stormwater runoff from turf is one of America's greatest sources of water pollution.
- Americans put more than 100 million pounds of chemicals on conventional turf landscapes each year, which is ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland.
- Lawns cover more land than any other single irrigated crop in the U.S.
- Watering lawns consumes 60% of municipal freshwater in the western states, and water transport accounts for Sacramento's greatest use of energy.
Contact Information: see sample letter below
Councilmember / Mayor
Sacramento City Hall
915 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
| Name | Position | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heather Fargo | Mayor | 916-808-5300 | |
| Ray Thretheway | District 1 | 916-808-7001 | |
| Sandy Sheedy | District 2 | 916-808-7002 | |
| Steve Cohn | District 3 | 916-808-7003 | |
| Rob Fong | District 4 | 916-808-7004 | |
| Lauren Hammond | District 5 | 916-808-7005 | |
| Kevin McCarty | District 6 | 916-808-7006 | |
| Robbie Waters | District 7 | 916-808-7007 | |
| Bonnie Pannell | District 8 | 916-808-7008 |
CITY OF SACRAMENTO FRONT YARD LANDSCAPE ORDINANCE
Sacramento residents are requesting the Law and Legislative Committee and City Council amend the current ordinance to allow diversified urban landscapes in front yard gardens in accordance with safety and health codes, and with no species-specific restrictions.
The current ordinance undermines City sustainability goals:
- The City of Sacramento has recently endorsed the Urban Environmental Accords and committed to sustainability in its 20-year General Update Plan. The issues of water conservation, water quality, energy and food security need to be implemented through the adoption of compatible City regulations and codes.
- Sacramento is a signatory of the Tree Foundation's Greenprint, which emphasizes building the best urban forest. The best urban forest is high in diversity, which includes all types of fruit and landscape trees.
- The Food Charter for the City of Sacramento was approved 4-2004, recognizing the importance of Food Security in Sacramento, whereas, the City of Sacramento supports “the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger,” as stated in the United Nations Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights. The Food Charter states that the Mayor and City Council will promote the preservation of local agricultural lands and support urban agriculture.
Both the City and the County are vitally interested in water conservation and clean water. By 2012, all Sacramento households will have water meters. Lawns require more water than perennial or annual plants (vegetables). Most lawns require herbicides and pesticides to remain green and pest free. When these are used the water run off from the lawns includes those chemicals. The chemicals then travel straight to the rivers and streams around Sacramento. Most vegetable or perennial gardens need little if any chemicals.
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To support these changes, please write your councilmember.
Below is a sample letter for your councilmember: (copy and paste)
_____________, 2007
Hon. _________________________
Sacramento City Council
City Hall
915 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: April 3rd, 2007 City Council Agenda Item - Front Yard Landscape
Ordinance 17.68.010
Dear Councilmember ______________:
As a resident of the City of Sacramento, I am writing to you regarding the Front Yard Landscape Ordinance 17.68.010. I am requesting that you adopt the proposed ordinance
as amended and recommended by the City of Sacramento Planning Commission on
January 11, 2007.
I feel that diverse front yard urban landscapes, which include vegetables and fruit, can help the City of Sacramento meet its current commitments, goals, and mandates in the areas of sustainability, food security and hunger, and climate change.
Currently, valuable city resources are directed toward working on the issues of water conservation, water and air quality, and green waste management. Adopting a new ordinance that supports diversified urban landscapes in Sacramento's front yards will not only help Sacramento meet its sustainability goals but also help address these crucial environmental issues.
I also believe that adopting the proposed amended ordinance will help move Sacramento toward a more livable and sustainable future.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
PRINT NAME: ________________________________________________
ADDRESS: ___________________________________________________
P.S.
Karen Baumann's Front Yard Garden Meeting Update (AS OF 5-31-05)
Bill Maynard and myself were the only public attendees at the May 17 meeting where the City of Sacramento's Law and Legislation Committee heard the presentation of the City of Sacramento Ordinance - Landscaping Requirements In Setback Areas regarding proposed revised language for ordinances regulating use of residential front yards, and the possible option of having gardens in the front yards or not. While it was expected that the revised language which would allow for front yard gardens would easily pass this committee, there was in fact very verbal objections to the possibility of allowing for front yard gardens, especially the possibility of dried corn stalks in the front yard. The regulations are being returned to the City of Sacramento Neighborhood Services Department staff for re-evaluation and further revision.
The City's staff hopes to have these revisions completed within a relatively short time and will offer these new revisions for consideration. It seems really critical that those in Organic Sacramento (and all city residents) who want to support the options for growing vegetables, herbs, shrubs, and trees in their front yards (or on any part of their property for that matter) come to these meetings to express their views and show support of these revisions. Unfortunately, the sparse public turnout was noted by members of the Law and Legislation Committee, and it reinforced a need for significant attendance at future meetings both with the Law and Legislation Committee, and then, the City Council meeting, to reinforce the importance of re-establishing Sacramento citizen's rights to retain control over how they manage their own property. I believe it is important that Sacramentans make their voices heard on this issue. There are times when the City Council eventually listened when they had heard enough from the public, so I believe it is definitely worth a try. This also would be a real victory for sustainability and allowing for alternatives to high resource consumption grass and turf to be allowed in the City of Sacramento's front yards. All help and support of this process would be really appreciated.
Endless suburban carpet of conformity or freedom of food?
TURNING AMERICA'S WATER-GUZZLING LAWNS INTO EDIBLE ESTATES
The average temperature for the continental United States from January through June 2006 was the warmest first half of any year since records began being kept, according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center. As many U.S. states suffer from drought, tensions over water usage are escalating, particularly over the nation's obsession for green lawns. In Los Angeles, Fritz Haeg has launched a nationwide campaign called "Edible Estates," helping homeowners convert their water thirsty lawns into vegetable gardens or native vegetation. "It's about shifting ideas of what's beautiful," says Haeg. According to homeowners across the U.S. who have taken similar steps to convert their yards into more practical (and less water-hungry) plots of land, the biggest problem comes from neighbors who believe such yards will reduce property values in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, groups like Edible Estates, are working to highlight the major problems inherent in fertilizing, watering and applying pesticides to the millions of acres of lawns across the U.S. "Diversity is healthy," says Haeg. "The pioneers were ecologically-minded out of sheer necessity, because they had to eat what they grew. But we've lost touch with the garden as a food source."
more at: www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_1105.cfm
THINGS YOUR LAWN NEVER WANTED YOU TO KNOW
- The EPA estimates that the total amount of residential lawn in the United States ranges around 40 million acres, making turf grass the nation's biggest irrigated crop.
- Americans pour as much as 238 gallons of water per person, per day onto lawns during the growing season.
- The U.S. lawn industry is a $70 billion annual business.
- America's 50 million or so lawnmowers burn through 800 million gallons of gas every year.
Edible Estates is a project launched by Fritz Haeg. The aim of the project is to “delawn” America, turning typical lawns into healthy, productive, food-bearing gardens as opposed to the useless, purely decorative resource drainers that they are now. Edible Estates makes it easy! Considering that most of the food now available to the general public is really disgusting (for a whole lot of reasons), and that lawns cover about 30 million acres of the U.S., I think that this project is something that YOU should support whether you have a lawn or not. Read this to learn more about it.
www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html
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