Recommendation to request City Attorney to draft an ordinance amending Title 8 of the Long Beach Municipal Code to establish the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone (UAIZ) Program and Title 21 to define land use zones eligible to participate in the UAIZ Program.  (Citywide)
Motion carries. Thank you. We're going to hear the urban ag item, which I believe is ten. Item ten is a report from Development Services recommendation to request the city attorney to draft an ordinance amending Title eight of the Lombard Municipal Code to establish the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Program citywide. Mr. WEST. Mr. Mayor, council members, we've been working on this for some time, and. Larry Rich, our sustainability coordinator, is going to give us a presentation on it. Thank you, Mr. West. Good evening, Mayor Garcia. And Members of the City Council. Assembly Bill 551 The Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Act was enacted by the State of California to promote small scale agricultural activities on urban vacant lots. The County of Los Angeles implemented its own program in 2016 that allows cities within the county, including Long Beach, to create local urban ag incentive zone programs of their own. This program would give eligible, vacant property owners the opportunity to realize a significant reduction in their annual property tax bill when they commit their property to an agricultural use for a minimum of five years. Agricultural uses include urban farms, community gardens. And educational gardens. Conversion of vacant lots to urban agriculture can produce multiple benefits to the community, including connecting residents to the broader food system, providing greenspace and recreational opportunities, building community and promoting food access, public health and economic development potential. The Department of Development Services, primarily through the Office of Sustainability, would administer the program. This administration will include accepting and reviewing applications, executing contracts with eligible property owners. Interaction with the L.A. County Registrar, recorder, assessor and treasurer, tax collector offices and initial and annual inspections of the property to ensure compliance with the UHC contract. The Office of Sustainability will also market the program and help connect potential farmers with vacant land owners, ideally utilizing the proposed vacant lot registry. City Council approval of the recommendation today will direct the City Attorney's Office to draft an ordinance to amend Title eight of the Municipal Code to create the UAC program and Title 21 to define land use zones eligible to participate in the UAC program. This concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. We have a motion and a second on this summary. Richardson. Thank you. I just have a few things. So. So this ordinance coming back, I want to just applaud the Sustainability Development Services team for bringing this back. We requested this back in May 2016. It took a year to come back. But the reason why is because this item and the subsequent item number nine, the hope was that they will work together. Item number nine, which we'll hear about, is the the vacant lot monitoring program, the vacant lot registry, which would offer a stick, if you will, to the city, to lots who have been vacant for, you know , some some 20 years. And work with this as a carrot to say, listen, you know, you have additional standards on your lot. You need to keep it well-maintained and white picket fence. You know, no more code enforcement issues. But if you work with a local, local agricultural group, you can receive not only assistance in maintaining your site, but you could also receive a tax benefit. And so the hope is that the two of these worked together. So I do want to just thank staff for bringing this forward. We look forward to seeing where there will be, you know, grant case specific fee exemptions and what we have that in this ordinance for vacant lot owners who agree to let let let these lots these vacant lots be used for these these services. So we're really pleased to see this come back. And the registry, which is the next next item. And what I really envision is hopefully is vacant lots are placed on our our data lab site. So if you are interested in doing urban agriculture, you can access the registry and really see, you know, see in real time. These are the opportunities to go ahead and sort of partner with a local property owner. So thanks to city staff and thanks to the city council for their support. Thank you, Councilman Gonzales. Yes. I just wanted to say thanks to Larry Rich and your team for working on this. And I know Vice Mayor Richardson had been working on the vacant lot program as well. And I just want to clarify, it will be on the data LP or open LP site, is that correct? Are there any other places that it will exist on our city websites to try to market what we're doing here? So the Office of Sustainability will definitely support this through. Its own website. But being on data, albeit if I'm not as familiar with that, but if that's possible, that will help too. Okay, great. Thank you. And I know there's a few people here from the urban agriculture community, and I want to thank them as well, because I know many of them have worked very, very hard to ensure that they're, you know, keeping up these vacant these lots that they have and creating good, healthy food. And so I want to thank each and every one of you for what you do. And hopefully this is another avenue for us to provide even more spaces for people. So thanks so much. Thank you. Will not take public comment on this item. Any public comment saying. Oh, okay. With the union, Mr. Mayor, and members of the City Council. My name is Natalia Kovach. I am a resident of the First District. I also am a member of the Alliance of Food for Food and Fitness. I'm a member of Best Start Central Long Beach, and they serve on the Headstart policy console. I'm a mother who lives in the multi-family residential area, as many of Long Beach residents don't. In my neighborhood, one small community garden is garden in Martin Luther King Junior Park, which is fairly small in full in existence. It is not very safe and easy. There is a need for more in my neighborhood. For me and mine is for many of my neighbors. We would be happy to be able to grow and purchase local, naturally grown, affordable produce. Sometimes I'm able to get to the big park farmers market by traveling there with my child on foot, fix the lawn and it's not affordable. Having the opportunity to purchase quality produce grown on the vacant lot on my block would be amazing. The proposal would attract and encourage these opportunities and empower my neighbors and I to take control of our health. Thank you. Hello, Mayor. City Council. My name is Ryan Serrano. I live at 81 Chestnut Avenue. I'm the founder and owner of a company called Earth Steward Ecology. We're an ecological landscape development company. My crew and I are a team of ecological thinkers, designers, builders and educators. And a lot of our work is basically. Retrofitting our outdoor. Spaces, our urban outdoor spaces to be more regenerative that is beyond sustainable, beyond just, you know, offsetting the resources that they're consuming, but producing more beyond that. And our work is predominantly working with California native plants and edible and medicinal plants that are endemic to this bioregion. We do a lot of work with developing. Food production, food production systems. We also build greywater recycling systems and rainwater catchment systems. I'm interested in this issue because I've been involved for years in urban agriculture, advocacy and work in the city. I previously had in a nonprofit. Organization called Food Scape, and. We were focused on agricultural literacy and and a demonstration project that went on for years right up the street at eighth and Chestnut. And we had a vacant lot that we were building a demonstration food forest, and we had an agreement with a private owner that was terminated when they wanted to sell it. But nevertheless, it was a great and powerful project that a lot of people got to experience and be fed from, both spiritually and and literally, you know, as as a food source. And, you know, it's a shame that there aren't more projects like that and there. Not more projects being invested in. It's an emerging market to be producing food locally. And it's it would be in the interest of the cities, you know, in terms of valuing the area to have more of that going on. It could offer alternative vocational opportunities and learning opportunities for young people who maybe don't. Have a path. To college or don't have interest in that. It also is is a way for you to be regenerating energy in the city. For as long as we aren't producing any any of our own food, we're dependent on imported food. And as long as we're dependent on importing anything, we're permanently exporting funds out of the city. So being economically regenerative is tied into this as well. I think that it's a no brainer to to approve this incentive zones. I think city properties should be considered as part of it as well and find a way to, you know, open up those spaces and not just speculatively value them, but what can be built there. And I think creating a clear path to how to do this is really important and not create a bureaucratic. Vortex that people get. Captured in and to turn away from using these spaces. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Oh, Mr. Mayor. Council. My name is Damon Lawrence, and I'm from Long Beach Grocery Cooperative. Our Long Beach Grocery Co-operative has a mission of opening up long beaches, first property owned, community owned grocery store. Okay, we started we incorporated in 2015, March 2015. We started taking shares in April of 2016. We currently have to almost 250 member owners to date, and we have completed a feasibility study that says that the co-op would be a really good fit for our area. Aren't the co-op would probably would make somewhere between 4 to $8 million ish projected in the first year. We wanted this urban agriculture agenda item. It would be a gold for us to be able to use locally sourced, grown in Long Beach produce at the cooperative to be able to sell that with cooperatives. That's what they do. They start local and try to keep the money local, and having that as a. As a resource. Would be, as an expanded resource would be great, would be absolutely outstanding for us. Note the also thinking about it, the farms that we do have in Long Beach Farm 59, the going experience. These are beautiful places. These vacant lots are a blight on us right now. But you can imagine turning them into farms so kids can actually see the fruit growing that they'll eat, you know? And actually, when you think about it, the co-op will actually allow it to be monetized and actually allow it to be sustainable over a long period of time by buying from those farmers, buying from those local agricultural agricultural farmers and supporting them and and their effort. And so it will be something that that they can they can pass forward. Also provide jobs. Okay. As we're as they will be, we'll have they'll be hiring people to work on these farms to sell the produce to to the cooperative. All right. Is to have several. Co-Ops in Long Beach. Okay. Over the long period of time so we can keep money inside of Long Beach. We're currently looking for a property right now. Or a. Property right now to open the first one. So you guys in your districts that have vacant properties that you would think that would be a good fit for the co-op. Please contact us right now is we're in property search right now. I want to thank you guys for your work in this area. Really this really is really makes this possible. The work that you guys have done has made this cooperative possible. Thank you very much, sir. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor and council members. I'm Dan Rodrigues, third district Columbus resident and current president of Lomita Organic, a nonprofit community garden organization. We currently operate eight gardens in the city, three of which are located on private property. And as part of our mission is to educate the community on the importance of being caretakers of the environment by promoting organic and sustainable gardening practices. We accomplish this by converting empty lots into community gardens. Over the past 20 years, this Long Beach Organic has been in existence. We've had positive experiences developing agricultural projects on empty lots such as these and that are privately owned lots. However, we still have a waiting list for some of our gardens that span about two years long, so we're still not able to meet that demand that the community has in this area. As you're aware, a good portion of Long Beach housing is on multi family dwellings that don't provide space for these types of activities or much outdoor space in that matters as a whole. So from that perspective, community gardens such as ours are places where Hands-On Education, Training and Discovery is provided for children and adults as well. Most of our gardens have gardeners that have no previous gardening experience, but as such, we foster a collaborative learning environment where seasoned gardeners and beginners alike can learn from each other. And in this process, community gardens also provide multiple benefits to the community. Two of which, as you're probably aware, that provides a place for our gardeners and then in their own neighborhood to grow their food for their tables. And secondly, as has already been mentioned, neighborhoods with empty lots that are often blighted, full of trash become converted into vibrant community gardens. And even the neighbors that aren't directly involved still benefit from the existence of these locations in their communities. Additionally, landowners also benefit as they are relieved of the maintenance responsibility for this property. This Urban Agricultural Incentive Act would increase the potential for additional community gardens in the city. The tax incentive would be enticing for, excuse me, an enticing factor for someone who is considering such a use for a vacant lot that they might own. And of course, a five year commitment would allow lobbies, organic and similar organizations, to further their mission in this area. So thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Hi. Dana Buchanan, a member of the third district and owner of Primal Alchemy Catering and Events. I want to thank Larry Rich and your staff for working on this and everyone here for not letting this. Go super important. I come from a little bit of a different perspective as a business owner in the food industry. We are the farmers markets. I don't know what that guy was talking about, but we're at the farmers market five, five or six days a week. We had all the markets in town to provide food for our our organic catering business. So this would help alleviate some of the supply demand issues that we have in the city for a lot of restaurants. I know of ten or 15 chefs right now that would totally support any urban farm growing produce for their restaurants, including including our business. So this is just a no brainer. It makes a lot of sense to me. One of the things I would invite you to once this passes is to seriously look at a way of streamlining, creating, licensing or permitting process that creates removes obstacles rather than create obstacles for people who want to. Get into urban farming, because that's, I'm sure, going to be an issue. So thank you. Thank you, Dana. Next speaker, please. Hi. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. And council members. We're all together, all four of us. So I would like to have them stand next to me. I'm there. That's great. Yes. Please come down. Tell them we love that stuff. We are survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide, and we use gardening as a form of healing for us. My name is Laura Song. I am a property owner in the fourth district as well as the sixth District and also the founder of a nonprofit called the ME Center. And these are all the members who are benefiting from the ME Center just to introduce this as Miss Kim Tam. She lives in the fourth district. This is Mr. Lim Ching, who lives in the ninth District. And this is Ms.. Veteran who lives in the fourth District. At the May Center, we use meditation, agriculture, yoga and education to promote healing from trauma as survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide. My bio starred in Long Beach. I came here in 1992 as a refugee. I was ten years old. No one knew I had PTSD. No one knew I lived for 20 years. Seeing my own mother, being near death in a refugee camp. No one could understand that. The spark of my success. Going from a homeless kid to a property owner to a founder of a nonprofit that is helping my first generations, my elders who are now still suffering from PTSD. The spark of that genius actually came from my interaction with plants and gardening as little as Long Beach House in terms of gardening, space and plants. And we are known as te generation of the cement generation and many of the younger generation are actually suffering from nature deficit disorder. I decided to create a center that uses gardening as a platform for me to teach science and teach the survivors about the science of their bodies so they could empower themselves to heal. And I realize the time is ticking, but we do share the 12 minutes. Right? Just continue. Okay. We have a small. Property where we practice natural farming methods to grow native vegetables and traditional Cambodian herbs and plants. Though we have an organic certification. We were surprised to learn that the properties that lie in the residential zones are not permitted to have agricultural use. We have identified several vacant lots in our community and that we would like to use to farm and share produce with the community through small markets, restaurants and community health centers. Many of our community suffer not only from trauma but also from illnesses that could be prevented with better nutrition. Unfortunately, our neighborhood also lack grocery stores and farmer's markets where residents can access healthy food. We're in central image. Passing this proposal would enable us to better feed our community and grow together by legalizing urban agriculture in our neighborhood and providing incentive to property owners. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, all of you. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and City Council. My name. Is Mary Redfern. And I live in the fifth District and I'm here to voice my support for urban agriculture in Long Beach. I don't represent a specific organization, but I'm deeply involved in advocacy advocating for sustainable agriculture locally. I'm a master's student at Cal Poly Pomona studying environmental sustainability. I'm a gardener at the Long Beach Community Garden at Eldorado Park. I volunteer to teach gardening at Mark Twain Elementary through. The. UC Master Gardener, L.A. County Master Gardener program. And I also work part time for the University of California Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources supporting local urban farmers. I love what I do, and I never thought that I would get so much joy out of teaching third, third to fifth graders gardening. But on a more serious note, as we move into a future where climate change will have a real global impact, the decisions we make for the future of urban areas are crucial. Making the path easier for urban ag in our city with incentive zones is a win win, and it's really. The minimum that we can do for social. Health and economic benefits of urban AG are well documented. I want to thank everyone here that has supported this idea. From those of you at the city, to the advocates behind me and also the advocates that couldn't be here tonight. But let's keep in mind that this ordinance is just the beginning and that the real work comes next, because like the soil and a garden that must be nourished before we can plant in it. Good things take time. So furthermore, we have some great advocates who work full time, have families, manage gardens, run farms. Yet they make the time to advocate for this because it's truly a transformative cause. So let's join our partners in the city of Los Angeles, where urban agriculture incentive zones passed this morning, and move forward with ideas that benefit the greater good. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. What's your plot? Number five. I'm an observant. Jew. Greetings. My name is David Herron. I'm a district resident. I am an industrial designer by trade. I'm an educator at Cal State Long Beach. But one of the things I'm most excited about is urban agriculture. So I work with an organization. It's a nonprofit social enterprise called Our Foods. And we are just setting our claim here in Long Beach, or I'm helping bring it to Long Beach, trying to do more. And I think that advocacy of this program and taking it forward will greatly expand those opportunities. We are a strong regional organization. We have programs going all the way up to the jail system in San Francisco. We have programs in Riverside and throughout L.A.. So just trying to bring more of that here into Long Beach as well. Our most recent project here in Long Beach was implementing, designing and implementing in a very short amount of time the learning garden at the Michelle Obama Library. And of the times I've been there on a weekly basis, sometimes many more. I interact with a lot of the patrons that come and use that space and of this grand amazing library that the garden is one of their highlights. So just to show the impact that's already created and that was an empty lot previously. So this proposal increases opportunities to work with local communities, and it also enables others to grow more food and organizations to come from that opportunity. It also addresses some of the current barriers and some of the things like lack of space opportunity. There's other issues in helping the urban ag industry take off. It's relatively new and there's a lot of growth in its future. But we do have a lot of barriers in place. So land is one of those things. So some of the key points that I see with Urban AG and what gets me excited is the diversity that's around. You know, we have local breweries, you know, talking earlier about making local beer. Well, we can also grow local hops for those breweries. We have a lot of amazing chefs and restaurants that are being showcased, especially at like music, taste good festival. People are coming into this town to see the amazing food being prepared, but we're also growing a lot of amazing food, like at the Garden Experience and some of these other farms that I work with. And one of the last things I want to end on in terms of my work with our foods is we're not really about growing food as much as growing jobs and education, and the food is just a great byproduct. So with that in mind, you know, creating more incentives and encouraging this proposal going forward is actually creating job creation as well. So special thanks to council members Oranga and Richardson for pushing this forward and thank you for your time. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Mongo. I still say that I'm excited about this great possibility. Councilman Super now. Thank you. That caught me off guard. That was a quick statement. I just wanted to respond to our friends from the Cambodian community who spoke here tonight. I think they've already left. Maybe they're home by now and watching this. But we're well aware of the issues with PTSD and the need to have these kind of agricultural experiences. And so, Larry, Rich and I have actually identified properties in the fourth District on the corridor that that might come to fruition just in May. May is two things. Mental Health Month and Asian Pacific Islander Month. So it's a perfect time. We got together with the Asian Pacific Islander Mental Health Facility is in the fourth District, also that's at PCH and Exhibitor and I went into depth with them about this critical need. So just rest assured, the fourth district will be working on it. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Richard. Just wanted to give a shout out to Tony. I thought he was going to speak, but Lambie's fresh and my chief of staff, Sharna, really picked this up, making sure that the organizing and all that stuff did take place. So. Tony, we see you keep up the good work, brother. And thank you so much to Shana. Thank you very much. There's a motion and a second on the floor. Thanks again to all of the folks here today. Good stuff. Please cast your votes.