urban district (cont’d) coNStraiNtS
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• In and around the dense urban core, much of the land is built up, leaving only small parcels of land that are unsuitable for conventional agriculture and large livestock grazing. • Zoning, spatial, and sanitation issues limit animal husbandry in this district. For raising chickens, current zoning requires a minimum of 30,000 square feet, on which three chickens are permitted. For every chicken thereafter, an additional 10,000 square feet is needed. These figures amount to a maximum of four chickens for every acre of land, and such open, privately owned acreage is uncommon in the Urban District.
• Soils in post-industrial cities like Northampton may contain toxic levels of lead due to previous industry. Also, lead may be concentrated in sites of old gas stations and parking lots from leaded gasoline, and in soil around older buildings with lead-based exterior paint.
implicatioNS Potential organizational and social connections can be strengthened to create beneficial partnerships that work to build a resilient local food system.
key QueStioNS
In the densely populated Urban District, alternative methods to conventional agriculture will need to be sought out due to
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What can Northampton do to grow more food in the Urban District? Many individuals and organizations in the district are already contributing to food system functions. How, then, can each become better informed of others’ work, and build connections for new opportunities? This section hopes to inform the public about potential connections; it does so by highlighting sites of current small-scale food cultivation, and offers suggestions about how operations might expand. Feed NorthamptoN disTricTs
opportuNitieS
• With diverse land uses, property types, institutions, and residents all in close proximity to each other, there is an opportunity to develop viable social and economic networks organized around food cultivation. Their proximity creates the possibilities to share knowledge, physical resources, and land. • Future dense urban infill development, outlined in the Sustainable Northampton Comprehensive Plan (2007) and in the Envisioning Sustainable Northampton study (2009), offers opportunities to plan for and integrate small-scale cultivation techniques. • An urban heat-island effect occurs when concentrated buildings and pavement absorb heat and radiate it slowly outwards, creating a warmer temperature in city centers than directly outside of them. This warmer microclimate is valuable for cultivation of heat-loving crops, many of which require warmer zones further south.
lack of open land. Urban agriculture can take place in small spaces, including single or shared yards, rooftops, vertical gardens, and planters. Directly outside of the urban core, cultivation can increase with more community and educational gardens and on small farms.