Urban farming approved by Planning Commission

CEDAR RAPIDS - Urban farming has gotten a boost from the City Planning Commission.

On Thursday, the commission endorsed a proposal to amend the city's zoning ordinance to allow urban farms in every zoning category in the city.

The City Council will take up the matter next.

The commission and council are responding to a request from the neighborhood-building non-profit group, Matthew 25, which is proposing to convert about two acres of flood-prone lots in the 100-year flood plain in the Time Check Neighborhood into an urban farm.

Clint Twedt-Ball and Courtney Ball, brothers and co-directors of Matthew 25, also planned for about 20 homes in what they are calling the Ellis Urban Village. Half the homes will be renovated and saved from the city's demolition list and half will be new homes built on vacant lots where flood-damaged homes once stood.

Matthew 25 is a partner with the Block by Block program, which will renovate and build the homes.

The brothers also propose to convert two flood-damaged school warehouses on G Avenue NW into apartments, classrooms, community rooms and offices, though Twedt-Ball noted this week that securing funding for the warehouse renovations won't be easy. The school district first must accept Matthew 25's proposal, he noted.

The City Council's Development Committee and the city's community development director, Christine Butterfield, expressed support for the brothers' plan at a July committee meeting.

Allan Thoms, a planning commission member, on Thursday noted that the city will require urban farmers to obtain an annual permit, which will allow the city to track whether the farm ground is being well maintained.

Urban farming is more than a typical garden, it allows a person to grow items for commercial sale and allows land to be used for farming when not used as a residence, city staff members noted to the commission.

Courtney Ball has said the Ellis Urban Farm will not feature big tractors, nitrogen fertilizer tanks or livestock. The plan is for “small plot intensive farming” that is part of urban neighborhoods across the country, he has said.