A bill for an ordinance amending the Denver Zoning Code to allow fresh produce and cottage food sales as a home occupation.  (LAND USE, TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE ) Approves a text amendment to the Denver Zoning Code to allow fresh produce and cottage food sales as a home occupation.  A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD AT LEAST FOUR WEEKS AFTER PUBLICATION. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 5-13-14.
Speakers are prohibited from using profanity or making personal attacks during their comments. Audience members Please understand that council members use electronic devices for various kinds to access the materials relevant to the public hearings before us. Be assured, however, by mutual agreement and common practice of the City Council, these devices are not being used for texting, emailing or other communications during our public hearings. And we will begin with Council Bill 398 as amended. Councilwoman Kenney So will you please put Council Bill 398 on the floor? I will. Mr. President, I move that council bill 398 be placed on final consideration and do pass. All right. We are catching up with the technology for a movement. And in a second it has been moved and seconded. The public hearing for Councilor Bill 398 is continued from Monday, June 16, 2014. We have five individuals to speak this evening. I'm going to call up the first five if you can make your way to the podium here at the front. That will help speed up the proceedings. We have our five our Mr. Texter. Mr. SEKOU. Mr.. KORNACKI. This is Grant and Mrs. Glassmaker. So those five can feel free to make your way to the podium. And we will begin with Mr. Texter. That tax of 4535. Julian Street, Denver. Growing fruits and vegetables in the city seems like a good idea. Maybe making a few dollars selling it isn't all that bad. However, on July 9th, a homeless man sleeping in a Denver alleyway beneath plastic sheeting was run over by a recycling truck. In the meantime, through Denver's Rent a Cop program, the Downtown Denver Partnership is sanitizing the 16th Street Mall for the enjoyment of tourists. It seems that instead of passing this ordinance, the city would bring more credit. To itself if it bought. The produce and distribute it on the mall. To the neediest of its citizens. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. TEXT. Mr. Sekou. My name is Chairman Siku. I am the founder organizer of the Black Star Action Movement for Self-defense. We unconditionally support this ordinance, which will legalize what folks have been doing since the last 60 years. I've been born with or without permission of government because it was a practical thing to do. And when I was growing up, there was canning going on in my house. We were sharing that with neighbors and sometimes there was a bathroom. You know, I'll give you this a can of peas and you give me some cabbage or some greens or some yams and whatnot. And so it's nice to be able to say that people can now come out from the shadows of illegality and do something that makes some sense without any fear of being prosecuted or persecuted, for having the ability to do something that we were made to do as human beings. And that was to grow our own food and feed ourselves without the interference of anybody, as long as we were preserving the land so that we can continue that on and make the land better for the next generation so they could do the same thing. And so it makes sense. And so we thank counsel for coming together, because I know this vote is going to be unanimous, because the truth is, you've already made up your mind. It was in subcommittee. Once it comes up, once the horse get out, the barn is a done deal, even when it's close. If you understand the process and I come to accept that as just part of the way we do what we do down here after coming here for three and a half years to study and research the process. So congratulations on having the common sense to let folks do what's been practical all my life. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr.. Q Mr.. KORNACKI. Thank you, Mr. President. My name is Eric Renacci. I live at 160 Hooker Street in the Burnham neighborhood. I shared the previous speakers enthusiasm for this bill. It's about time that we return to the common sense practice of feeding ourselves and feeding our neighborhood. I'm extremely proud to represent the Sustainable Food Policy Council of Denver today, where we took up this issue about two years ago as something that not only made sense, but we also knew that it would make an incredible impact on communities throughout Denver, particularly the low income and underserved communities that do not have access to healthy food . I also an executive director of a nonprofit called Revision and Rework in the Southwest Corridor, primarily the Westwood neighborhood where Councilman Lopez, just out of faith, invited us in 2009 to come meet residents of the community that I think we're tired of not having the power to bring a grocery store into their community. And we're suffering from some of the worst diet related health effects in the entire city of Denver. And we started with a very basic premise of teaching people to grow their own food, utilizing their own land. What started in 2009 with seven families, I'm very proud to say, is over 300 families in southwest Denver this year growing their own food and feeding their neighbors. And last year alone, we produced over £20,000 of food. These are many small time small households that are starting a ten by ten plot in their own yard. And what we came to find is that not only were they producing such an abundance for their own family, but they were sharing with their neighbors whether it was an extended family, someone at their church, someone at their school. But there was clearly enough surplus to go around. In addition, many of these families live on less than $15,000 a year. That's self-reported. And so we said, hey, would you be interested in selling your own food? And every one of them said, yes. How do I go about doing that? So we're in the process of starting a community owned grocery store. You may have heard that in the mayor's State of the City address today, but one of the most immediate solutions is allowing people to set up a stand at their house and say, Come buy my produce from their neighbors. So I think, Councilwoman, can each four, four spearheading this bill and everybody else that has been in support of it. And I thank you for taking it up today. Thank you, Mr. KORNACKI. Beverly Grant. Greetings, Honorable Council members. I appreciate this opportunity to speak before you. I live at 3615 York in the Cole neighborhood. I would also like to thank Councilwoman CORNISH, Councilwoman Shepherd in her absence and Councilwoman Brooks, because they were kind of like the trio that spearheaded this movement. A couple of things I would like to share. I have been working for the past six, seven years in our local food movement. My work has been primarily focused in northeast Denver, which is a food desert neighborhood. And this particular legislation, in addition with the agricultural food producing legislation that's already passed and the Kurdish Food Act, plus this one that's on the table right now, lay a strong foundation to strengthen our urban ag movement, because we'll have fresh agricultural products, value added foods that can spurn a lot of neighborhood economics, that little bitty pockets block by block. You heard Eric story of 300 neighbors in a neighborhood. I have that same vision where I live, where there's not nearly that much growing going on. And this legislation will help to get us organized, lay a strong platform for doing it. My vision is to start in five points. Keep moving east. That's the Green Valley. Little by little, I like to point out that this is also a step toward raising food production in our mayors overall goal of of our city being able to feed itself with local foods. Then one other thing. The definition of a food desert is where residents have to travel miles to get to food. This would kind of create a tipping point where the shift would be going blocks to get food. And in closing, I would like to say that not only does this legislation encourage individual families to be a part of their own food solution, but it will also encourage more neighborhood connectedness around food, around sharing and around improved health . Thank you for listening. Thank you. And our last speaker to maker. And I apologize if I misspoke. I'm Sue Glass Maker. I'm here representing Curtis Park Neighbors. Curtis Park Neighbors was advised early on in this process by the cottage food people. They did an excellent job of helping us understand this. And also we knew about it from planning at I.N.S., so we're pretty well versed in it. Curtis Park neighbors voted unanimously to support this text amendment, and we feel that you just have to look at Vermont to see how this works. Vermont is the leader in the nation on this type of cottage industry stuff because the people there have to scrape for jobs. And what happens is people develop an entrepreneurial mindset and they start doing this. And it's amazing what happens when a little thing happens. And it's an easy way for people to not only feed themselves good food, but it's an easy way for them to start a business with with low risk and low startup cost so they can take a little whirl at it in a very small way. And it's amazing what can come out of that. And it's mostly that independent spirit that gets fostered. So, again, we were unanimously in favor of this. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers. Are there any questions from members of council? Seen on the public hearing for 398 is close and now it's time for comments from members of council. Councilwoman Cannick. I will yield to my colleagues. Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity. I'll ring in at the end here. Certainly, Councilwoman Lehman. Thank you. Councilwoman Sheppard could not be here this evening and asked that I read her letter for you. So I'm going to read the letter from Councilwoman Shepherd. I am very sorry not to be able to be here for tonight's historic vote, as I am on vacation with my family. That was planned long ago. I am definitely with you in spirit. However, as I'm very proud of all the. Work the local food. Community and my colleagues, council member Albert Brooks and especially Councilwoman Robin Kennish, have done to move this ordinance forward. As many of you may know. I actually did. Backyard vegetable. Farming on my own. Just prior to being elected to council in 2011. This was during two and a half year period where I was home taking care. Of my son and it provided me with a little income and something to keep me and my. Mind busy engaged when I wasn't changing diapers or feeding the baby. I did it on a very small. Scale basis and my profit margins were extremely slim, especially since the only way to easily distribute my produce was to drop it off at my customers home and my vehicle, further eating into any profits that I made due to money I spent on gaffs. I often and fantasized about how nice it would be to be able to sell vegetables from my own home and also some minimally processed products such as jam. Recently I taught Revision International, a nonprofit organization that teaches people how to grow food for themselves and their neighbors in Council District three. I had the opportunity to meet a wonderful family of seven who lived in a very small one bedroom house with the help and direction from Rent Revision International and access to a little bit of land. This family is growing all their own food, sharing quite a bit with their neighbors, and selling the extra to help supplement their very modest income. Their gardens are beautiful national my showcases in a food desert and have attracted the attention of many. Including. Media outlets such as encryption. These are a couple of examples of the type of people and enterprise this ordinance can help. And I precisely the reason I am proud to co-sponsor this ordinance, this my carefully crafted bill can. Increase. Access to healthy foods in areas where none exist, contributing to a healthier parents and children in areas where it may take years to recruit a major grocery store. This ordinance also gives opportunity to many people who are prolific gardeners or talented home food producers to sell a little bit of their bounty and help bring some much needed income to supplement their incomes. It also gives communities the chance to learn more about where their food comes from and helps children and adults reconnect meaningfully with the land in a way that has been lost in our hectic culture. It gives the opportunity for more of our dollars to continue circulating locally and boosting our economy rather than draining away to out of state or out of country. Agribusiness producers, whom we had never met and may not share our values on what it means to grow food. In a. Sustainable manner. Once again, I applaud all the hard work that has transpired to bring this ordinance forward, and I strongly urge my colleagues to vote yes. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Lemon. Councilman Brooks. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I for a ten minute joke. I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I never thought when I took office how how much of an issue, a social justice issue, the price and location of a vegetable would be and this is this has truly been a transformational process for me personally. I think any time I sponsor legislation, I want to have the kind of the three the three piece. Right. The personal transformation has some specific projects in the district that we're working on and and always thinking of some larger policy issues. And so for the projects we live in. Northeastern was one of the largest food deserts in the city. And as I was knocking on doors when I was running for office in 2011, a lot of folks commented on this and they talked about the length it was to walk to a grocery store in District eight, only had Safeway. And so 55,000 residents with one major grocery store. You know, it's ridiculous. So we worked really hard with a couple of developers and also with Sunflower, which then changed its name to to locate right there on Colfax. And thanks to the council and a lot of community support, we were able to to get to get that sunflower there. And it is one of the, you know, top revenue producing grocery stores in their whole network. So it was really exciting to see that, you know, we we've been working really hard to find out. Can we get another one in five points? Can we get another one in right now? And all over the northeast, northeast, Denver, in collaborating even with Globeville, Elyria, Swansea, where these nodes and these pockets of of grocery empty grocery stores are, you know, I, I was excited when Councilwoman Canete brought this forward and I want to thank her for her leadership in this. She's been wonderful to work with, very thorough and the community support that's behind it. I have neighbors, actually. Beverly Grant is my neighbor. So, you know, I had to get my stuff together. But I have neighbors who are so excited about this piece of legislation. And it's it's I think it is a tremendous microeconomic plan for neighbors to get involved, not only to become healthy by growing their own, but by being able to be a part of this local economy. Last last week, you know, we've been we've been planting our own little garden in the Brooks household. And my joy comes when my my kids, every day, they get home from school, they run straight to the garden and they're able to see, how's the zucchini doing? Okay. How's the tomatoes doing? Okay. The squash is looking pretty good. And so you see that we're instilling this in young people. And even in my family, we didn't we didn't have these kind of opportunities. And so that my kids are already starting at this young of age and they understand how to plant and they understand how to be a part of this healthy lifestyle is transformational. And that's why it's so important that we pass this piece of legislation. So I will I'll be supporting this. I think it's important when we when we tackle food deserts, that we have the macro in the micro envision, we've got to make sure that we have these grocery stores. But at the same time, we've got to make sure that there's a local grass root education going on throughout our community. And I think this policy is going to create that. So I hope that my colleagues will support this. And once again, thank you to Councilwoman Shepherd and Councilwoman Cohen each. Thank you, Councilman Brooks. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. I am absolutely supportive of this ordinance. I think this is frankly a no brainer for us. And I think that you'll find that, you know, a lot of folks are very supportive in this city, and a lot of folks would probably say, you mean we couldn't do that in the first place? Right. I mean, there's there's a lot of support. Hmm. Unfortunately, we still have food deserts and having Eric and folks at revision and the bottom up thought out in Westwood working to stand in the gap. Basically when it comes to food deserts, they do it passionately. They do it despite the rising cost of water. Although in these chambers we vote to create this ordinance to support this, there are other quasi governmental chambers that still give give us grief about a reduced rate in water so that folks can actually grow. I'm talking about Denver water. We need to be able to partner and we need to be able to do this, not just the city and county of Denver, but in all of our agencies to support this and to support this effort, because that's the gap. The gap is that in very many neighborhoods, for decades, they've had. No grocery store. And if they do, it's potato chips and Pepsi. And it's not something that is healthy and not something that promotes a healthy lifestyle or combats disease and obesity. In some zip codes in Denver, you have folks who suffer from such high rates of diabetes and heart disease and obesity that they live 12 years less than other zip codes and people in other zip codes. That's how bad this crisis is. And if we are witnessing a health crisis now, imagine what it will be like ten, 20, 30 years down the line when those same communities do not have access to fresh produce. So this is absolutely standing in the gap and allowing folks to build that local economy because jobs are still hard to come by. But I don't want this passes tonight, which I expect it to and expect to see. A lot of the proponents in this chain, in these chambers continue to do the hard work that they're doing. I don't want this to be an excuse as to not put a grocery store in a neighborhood and not fill those gaps in this city where people do not have access to healthy food. We have the power and we have the resources in this city combined to do that. The entities constructed and assembled and boardrooms ready to do that. It just takes the will. My son has guns, as we say, in Westwood and in West Denver. The desire to do it. Until then, I apply to you all for taking this commonsense idea, turning it into legislation. I applaud sponsors for doing this and making sure that in the meantime, great folks like you are standing in the gap and there's great progress and there's an amazing sense of community that is born out of this. So I absolutely support this, and it's something that's long overdue. It is something that is absolutely ancient in its ways and ancient in its wisdom. Thank you, madam. Thank you, Mr. President. I didn't mean that like Brooks did. I meant that. I'm sorry. Thank you, counsel. Mr. President. Mr. President. Councilwoman Fox. Thank you, Mr. President. I've heard how enthusiastic some of our citizens are about this proposal, both from tonight and the time before. And they've convinced me that it may be a worthwhile project for some areas of town. Unfortunately, this proposal applies to almost all zoning districts. And I do think, Councilwoman CORNISH, for exempting several small areas in my district that historically have had very restrictive zoning. Now, not the areas in my district are in a food desert. So that's different from the testimony that many of you have given. We do not have that issue, and that's not something we're solving for by considering this ordinance. My three most active associations chose to take a formal vote on this proposal. And all three of those will be included in the sales. So they are included under this ordinance. One neighborhood split. Two unanimously opposed. Ironically, the night that the two that unanimously opposed these ordinances, the night that they took the vote, they had a guest speaker. And it was a master gardener, a professional gardener who had supplies that he had brought. And he was trying to have people even have some freebies to take home. So there was a good crowd and they were all ones who wanted to garden. They really did find a number of problems, however, and chose that they didn't want to support it. They did, however, say that they wished that the ordinance was trying to promote more farmers markets on arterials that they would have supported. They did. I would say that the most common complaint I get from constituents when I send out my survey is they write back saying, please don't let my neighborhood go downhill. Traffic and commercialization. Are two of the things they're concerned about now. I would say their biggest concern about this ordinance is that it dramatically increases commercialization in residential areas and it's visible. I mean, not like somebody cutting hair behind your closed door. You don't do that out on the front lawn. Here, you're going to be doing it out on the front lawn. There's going be a stamp set up, could be from 8 a.m. to dusk every day of the year according to this ordinance. That is something that they are extremely concerned about. Likewise, we have such a large yards and the potential of growing so much vegetable that there would be a possibility that traffic could increase because people would be drawn to these areas. And that is something that concerns them. I'd certainly be tempted to support this if it started with, say, areas of change and allowed stable neighborhoods that wanted. To to opt. In. If we were to start smaller and see how this goes in areas that really do have the need. That would be something I'd be tempted to support. But that's not how this ordinance is written. And given the feedback I have gotten in my areas, I will not be supporting it. Thank you, Councilman Fox. Councilman Nevett. Thank you, Mr. President. Oh, excuse me. So I want to express my support for this. But I also want to do two other things. One is to make a whiny little complaint, and then I'll follow that up with something that might maybe a civics lesson that I've learned from the whining complaint. So starting with the expression of support, this move makes perfect sense. In a perfect sense, it's it's the obvious next step in a trajectory that we began some time ago, a trajectory towards a more inclusive, a more local, a more diverse, a more sustainable food system. And each step on this trajectory, each step that we've taken has been preceded by a great deal of anxiety and nervousness and controversy. And each step that we've taken has been followed by almost complete silence and no problems whatsoever. This started with Councilwoman Lemon. She was the one who kicked this off down this road by moving to legalize the keeping of bees inside the city and county of Denver. So you can imagine the controversy associated with potential of your neighbor keeping bees. But she persevered. We legalized the keeping of bees. And as far as I know, there have been virtually no complaints of the keeping of bees. Great. So people who want to keep bees can keep bees. Some people are better off. Nobody's worse off. I followed that up by legalizing the keeping of chickens. Again, a great deal of anxiety controversy. Your neighbors are going to keep chickens and all hell is going to break loose. But we persevered and we passed the legalization of the keeping of chickens. And we have had virtually no complaints over the keeping of chickens. So once again, people have more diverse food sources. They get to enjoy what they are doing. They have new freedoms and some people are better off and no people are worse off. So this is clearly the the next step. We're a diverse city with diverse interests and diverse enthusiasms. If you want to do something, even if I don't particularly like it, and you can do it without causing problems for your neighbor. Who are we to say no? So now let me get to my whiny little complaint. Inside this bill is the provision that the sale of cottage foods cannot begin until 8:00 in the morning. But in the rest of our code, you can begin almost anything at 7:00 in the morning, so I can start hammering shingles on my roof at 7 a.m., I can start running a table saw in my backyard at 7 a.m.. I can start jackhammering up my sidewalk at 7 a.m., but I have to wait until 8 a.m. to go next door and buy a basket of tomatoes from my neighbor because otherwise it would be too disruptive. So down the road this perversity will be ridiculed and the people ridiculing her will wonder what kind of morons were on city council who thought that buying vegetables was more disruptive than jackhammering your sidewalk? And you know, our code is rife with this. Everyone can point to pieces of our governance that are obviously ridiculous and that, you know, the who were the idiots on city council who approved this. But this is actually a great opportunity to offer maybe just a little bit of a civics lesson. This kind of outcome isn't the product of morons because there's 13 brilliant people on the city council. This is one of the dis tempers of democracy. This is what happens actually, when democracy works. Councilwoman Kennish has done exactly the right thing. She had a good idea. She saw input from all corners of the city. That input was diverse. Some people were supportive. Some people were opposed. People had concerns. And she tried to address those concerns. And one of the ways as a good representative, Democratic representative, addressing some of those concerns involved, allaying some of the fears of some people in some neighborhoods by moving the start time from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.. And I noticed tonight this was not without controversy, but tonight everyone is testifying in favor. So those who are opposed appear to be somewhat mollified and they're not here. Councilwoman Kennish did exactly the right thing, and this ordinance is the product of that democratic process. But that democratic process is not always internally coherent. It's not always absolutely consistent in the way it would be if we simply wrote the rules with a single point of view and a single point of time with a single perspective. So down the road, when you find something that the city is doing that you think is moronic or crazy or perverse or incomprehensible, just think back to this. And remember, sometimes when democracy works, you get outcomes that aren't necessarily coherent, but they're democratic nonetheless. And I look forward to getting this passed and letting people sell food to their neighbors, as they should have been all along. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Nemec, Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. First of all, I want to thank Councilwoman Kenny for her efforts. I know that she's been working on this for some time and has done very extensive outreach to our RINO's and other organizations that care very much about this issue. I was part of a group that went to New Mexico a couple of months ago looking at and talking about food sustainability issues, and we came back with some very important lessons learned and suggestions. And we're actually following up with two meetings next week with a number of our key city players to talk about some of those lessons learned, including the fact that if you have not looked at the food section in the mayor's climate action plan, there's not very much in there about food. And so we've got some strong suggestions that we're going to be talking with some of the Cabinet members about that we'd like to see incorporated into the Climate Action Plan , because that's a document that looks, you know, years into the future. And you've got to take into account the new opportunities that are available. And when you look at what cities are doing all across the country and we had a chance to learn from other cities in the southwest, this was a tremendous opportunity where they're trying to address many of the same topics that we talked about here tonight of providing food for people that are in food deserts, creating the opportunities for people to grow food in their home, and they can make a little bit of money from that. We have organizations in Denver like Denver Urban Gardens, who has been around for, I want to say, almost 30 years. Is that. Correct. Whereby we have specific fixed site locations in the city of Denver that are serving people in those neighborhoods. Many of them when they started, were very low income communities. But many of those original gardeners, even though many of them may have left that neighborhood, still garden in those in those locations and are providing food for their families. I think the opportunity to be able to allow folks to sell what they are growing to their neighbors, to folks that are in need. I think you're going to see some traffic reduction because you're going to see neighbors walking to neighbors homes. You're not going to see people getting in cars and driving to the grocery store because they're going to enjoy having access to fresh fruit and vegetables. And so I think that's a good thing. I think this is a big step forward for the city. I'm excited about the opportunities that it's going to create. I've been gardening for a number of years. As a matter of fact, Councilman Brown, who's not here tonight, has historically shared tomatoes with many of us. I'm growing some yellow tomatoes from a plant that he gave, and I'm just waiting for them to get ripe so I can try to see how they compare to the red tomatoes. I'm not planning to sell anything out of my garden because I usually just give stuff away when I have any excess. But I think this is a big step in the right direction for the city of Denver, and I'm very happy to support it. Thank you. Thank you again, Councilwoman Monteiro. Thank you, Mr. President. I also wanted to thank Councilman Kennish and Councilman Brooks and Councilwoman Sheperd for bringing this creative and most needed amendment forward several years ago. I was able to sponsor a text amendment that would allow for aquaponics in this in the Swansea neighborhood. And at the time it was something that wasn't really being done. But the whole idea behind aquaponics in this old and this old greenhouse was to allow for fish to float in a tank and swim around and then be able to use the fertilized water to grow lettuce and other vegetables in this particular greenhouse. And that's when I began to learn so much about the merits of the food justice system and movement and the empowerment that people feel when they grow their own food. The awesome, amazing power that people feel when they when they can do that. And then that was followed by the bees and the chickens and the goats. And and now today, we're talking about being able to just put a basket out in front of your yard and be able to sell. So I am really, really excited about that. The idea that the city of Denver actually recognizes the food justice movement is so amazing and incredible to me that something so simple as being able to grow your own food in your garden can actually help you with your and your family and being able to bring everybody together, your community, but even the basic economics of growing your own vegetables. I'll just give you a real quick example. The other day, we were in the mood for color visitors, which is, you know, squash and onions and jalapenos and garlic. And we went to the farmer's market because we didn't want to go to a to a grocery store. And I took tabs on how much I paid for everything. You know, each squash was like a dollar 50 each could eat. You know, each dollar piano was, you know, like two for a dollar 50 and the onion and the garlic. And I thought, Oh, if I had a garden in the back, I could have just gone and, you know, picked my own little garden. So it wasn't a lot of money, but, you know, it kind of adds up. And I thought I could, you know, I could do this. Now I want to say that I have just one little tomato and his name is Tiny Tim and he's sitting in the kitchen. And I'm trying to do my best to have him thrive. And maybe someday he'll, you know, maybe someday I'll have tomatoes. But what I'm trying to say is that if you're talking to somebody that doesn't really know how to grow a garden, but here's what I'm willing to do. You know, I'm willing to learn about composting. You know, I'm willing to pull weeds and. Willing to try my garden. And I think, you know, the idea of just being able to have that possibility. And I would be so excited if I was able to grow something and somebody would buy it from me, you know? You know, the squash or the garlic. I would just be so happy with myself to be able to do that. So I, you know, I come to it with the idea of actually being joyful about growing and having fun doing that. So I support this. Many of my constituents have weighed in and, you know, they're excited about it, too, because we live in an amazing city that's always pushing the envelope and trying to do new things. So I will be supporting this and congratulations to all the sponsors. Thank you, Councilwoman Monteiro. Councilman Rob. Thank you, Mr. President. All right. Just a couple of word choice or semantic differences with my colleagues, but general support of this bill. Councilman Lopez said that this is a no brainer. And I think you said for us. I think that's definitely true in some neighborhoods. That this is. Pretty universally wanted. But in my neighborhood, I didn't find. It a slam dunk in my district. To talk to the neighborhoods. I probably have 15 neighborhood organizations at least. I put this in my newsletter three times, about three months in a row. Asking for feedback. Referencing all the links. Of course we know how much people read email, so maybe not everybody read it. But of all of that, in Councilwoman Connection's outreach, only two neighborhood groups discussed the ordinance enough to then contact me. One couldn't agree to support it, but they also couldn't. Agree to oppose it. And so I sort of had this letter. Or communication of. We discussed. It and we don't know it. It wasn't a no brainer for them. They had some real. Concerns and they had some real desires. One neighborhood did oppose it, which has given me a lot of pause and probably for some of the reasons that Councilwoman Frances neighborhood opposed it. The commercialization of a neighborhood which I understood, but I but both Councilwoman and I took some time to talk to those neighborhood leaders. And then while I get thousands of emails on all sorts of topics, I don't think I had more than five. Personal emails. On this topic from Council District ten, and probably this just shows how different all our districts really are. We don't have large lots in my district. It's probably not a huge income burner for. Folks in my district. And that's a second sort of word choice disagreement I have. I don't know if this is a huge step for Denver. I actually think it's sort of a small step. One of the neighborhood leaders, zoning chair in Cherry Creek North and I were chatting and I said, I don't think this is going to happen much in our district, sort of like the corner lemonade stand. And he laughed and he said, Yeah, we'll probably have a celery stand on the corner. Some kid will be out selling celery. And there. Wasn't that that. Great a concern. We're not talking, although it's important to grow your own produce. It's a good hobby, can be healthy, can be a lot of work. But we're not talking about a get rich fast scheme here in growing produce and selling it. Councilwoman Sheppard's letter referenced how little she actually made. Still, I think it's good for the neighborhoods where they want to do it and not harmful for the neighborhoods where there's not as much interest. So I am going to go ahead and support this. Thank you, Councilwoman Robb. Councilwoman, can each. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to all of my colleagues for the thoughtful comments. This job. I love this job. Did I say that once tonight? Already it's really a privilege. And you can choose to make an impact in a lot of different ways from the Council. We have a rule in our office which is that we only ever take something on if we have a partner. We're small, we only have myself and two staff who are outstanding, but we want things to live past my term in office. We want things to live past what three people can do. And so every now and then you get lucky and in walks the door, an amazing set of partners, and they have an idea. And so in this case, it was the Sustainable Food Policy Council, which is a group of appointees of the mayor and also a collaborative known as the Live Well Regional Community Collaborative, few other revision and other organizations. But thank you to those. Partners, some of whom spoke today. But also thank you to the other residents who spoke. We had Curtis Park here and in the prior hearing we had other residents. We really did have what I call true democracy, which is people came up with an idea and they researched it and then they brought it to our office. So so I didn't do very much work on this one. And really the work was done by those partners and my staff. So Dana miller, Shayna Spurlock, our planning person, Sarah Showalter, and also my staff even, that's on it. I also want to thank Mayor Hancock because I appreciate his evaluation of this ordinance compared to the priorities that he has for the city in which today was our state of the city, where he talked about these things. He talked about food that doesn't travel so far and food that's accessible. And so I thank him for his support of this ordinance, which he shared with all of our colleagues last week to those who've had a few concerns about neighborhood quality of life. We did research the other cities that have done this. Wheat Ridge has had this in place for some time. Not one complaint related to quality of life. The city of Seattle, almost identical in size 600, some thousand residents, very similar, you know, size of the city, neighborhoods that are somewhat dense with some neighborhoods that are somewhat more suburban or bigger, bigger yards. No complaints related to quality of life. Parking just has not been an issue, and we have no evidence that it would become an issue. There is an interest the city has in uniformity of zoned districts, and I want to share that. Although I'm passionate and part of the reason I was excited to bring this ordinance up in terms of food deserts in low income neighborhoods, I am at large and I took this on with the intentional desire that it was really something that should be available to all neighborhoods, that which may be small for the city, could be very large for an individual. And so when I heard from a retired woman in a very middle class, stable neighborhood with access to three grocery stores that she felt pretty excited about making her jam available and that this was something in her retirement that would give her joy. That's an opportunity. And so I don't think that this only is about some neighborhoods in the city. I do think it's a different opportunity in different neighborhoods, but equally valid and equally important. And so I do want to thank Sue Ackerson from from Curtis Park about the economics in my own house, the entrepreneurial spirit as is taking wind. And I recently had, you know, access to regular and my five year old son informed me that we were no longer allowed to give it to the neighbor because we were supposed to be selling it. So, so clearly. Clearly, that entrepreneurial spirit starts early and takes off with a vengeance. Nothing in this ordinance prohibits the free distribution of vegetables. And I'll just please note. And so I'm excited that it's not often you can with one swoop, one person can earn a little cash and one person can get some fresh food. And you don't have to leave the neighborhood. And that's what this does. And I believe we will have a review at one year point. I'm sure at that point we're going to find that there were very few problems, but we will follow up on any that arise. And I appreciate the city for engaging in the dialog. People learned a lot through this process about why it's safer to buy your vegetable from your neighbor than it is from a farm. Produce in a country that uses pesticides that are banned here, or from a farm that uses machinery, equipment, even if it's on the western slope that's subject to bacteria in ways that handheld vegetables are not. And so people learned a lot about food safety and about all of the pieces of this. So so this was a conversation not just here at the dais, but across the city. And so I think everyone who is engaged in it and who communicated, regardless of their concerns or their side on the issue. And with that, I thank my colleagues and urged them to vote yes and respect those who will dissent, but appreciate their engagement as well. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman Canete. See no other comments from members of the Council. Madam Secretary, roll call. Can each I Liman by Lucas Montero. Nevitt Ortega, Rob Fry, Brooks. I. But no. Mr. President. Hi. Councilwoman Lehman. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Please go to the end and have the results. 9199918 Council Bill 398 has passed. We are moving on to our second public hearing council bill. 502 Councilwoman Kenneth, would you please put council bill 502 on the floor? Yes, Mr. President. I move that council bill five oh to be placed upon final consideration and do pass.