Farm stands on your street? Victoria rethinks retail rules
The farm stands peppering rural roads with offers of fresh eggs and flowers could be coming to a neighbourhood near you.
The City of Victoria will consider allowing backyard growers to sell their produce through urban farm stands.
“What this would do is allow people to sell the food they’re growing on their property. So for example, at the house I grew up in, we had an apple tree that had so many apples that we could probably only use a tenth of them,” Coun. Jeremy Loveday said. “With these changes, you’d be able to set up a stand and sell them at the front of your property.”
The city’s bylaws were changed in 2008 to allow production of fruit and vegetables for retail purposes on a portion of a property. However, no retail sales are allowed from the site.
Under the changes, growers would require a $25 seasonal business licence. They would not need to apply for a development permit to build a stand.
The proposal will go to public hearing on Aug. 25.
The change would allow the Mason Street City Farm to engage more directly with the public, said co-owner and production manager Jesse Brown.
“Having a more public presence on the street would be a lovely way to gather attention and make people aware of what we do,” he said.
The urban farm operates on about a third of an acre and produces about 150 pounds of produce a week. It sells salad greens to local restaurants and runs a community-supported agriculture box program that feeds 11 families, Brown said.
“Right now, we can legally sell to restaurants and we can take our food to markets,” he said.
The farm also sells a small amount of leftover produce — illegally — to customers. It’s a system that works well and limits wasted food, Brown said, but it makes the farm vulnerable to neighbourhood complaints.
George Simmons, who lives in an apartment on the block, said he’d be happy if a farm stand opened there. “I agree with it,” he said. “I already buy tomatoes and stuff from them.”
In Saanich, farm stands are permitted only on properties zoned as farmland. But bylaw enforcement is complaint-driven, and many stands operate informally and are enjoyed by the community, said planning director Sharon Hovzdanski.
“In the last five to six years, I’ve only received one complaint. That was from a neighbourhood where they didn’t mind the stand. But a huge number of neighbours were upset about the traffic [it generated],” Hovzdanski said.
Heather Parker, executive director of the City Harvest Cooperative, said it’s a great first step, but would like to see broader support for urban agriculture.
The proposed bylaw would limit stands to 20 square feet, which she said isn’t appropriate for commercial growers.
“It’s a great way for people to share their extra tomatoes with each other, but it’s not a good way to run a business,” she said.
It also limits sales to produce grown on that particular lot. Parker said that wouldn’t work for City Harvest Co-operative, which harvests from seven backyards and three schools in Saanich and Victoria, then shares the produce among producers through a community-supported agriculture program.
Separate zoning for commercial urban farms, allowing for permanent chilled storefronts, would be appropriate, she said.
Jenny McCartney, who co-ordinates Lifecycles Project’s fruit tree initiative, isn’t worried about losing fruit to farm stands. The project harvests between 30,000 and 40,000 pounds of fruit from privately owned trees that would otherwise go to waste, sharing the bounty among homeowners, volunteers, food banks and community organizations.
“I love seeing people’s backyard fruit ending up at community centres and food banks,” she said. “However, I feel like Victoria’s incredible abundance can serve all of our needs. Any initiative that supports more food being grown in the city is a positive one in my eyes.”