St Pete City Council's Public Safety and Infrastructure Committee went to work last Thursday towards adding language to their zoning regulations about community gardens. Given that more and more people want to grow their own food and green up their neighborhoods these days, it may come as a shock that technically speaking, right now community gardens are not actually allowed.
Like most cities in Florida, St Petersburg's zoning doesn't have any provisions for community gardening at all. Happily, in St Pete this appears to be an oversight — unsurprising given how few long-term community gardens have existed in the state of Florida. City staff have readily provided temporary use permits to the Bartlett Park Community Garden over the last year (the Azalea garden on 22nd Ave. N is on city park land and doesn't require permitting). But more garden projects are in the works all over the city and it will help a great deal to have a more standardized process for getting them established.
If the city can move fast, St Pete could be on the upside of the curve. Similar ordinances are in the works in places like Safety Harbor and Tampa (Tarpon Springs already passed theirs last year). In fact, these others are looking at adding community gardens to their comprehensive plans as well as their zoning regulations, which could be really helpful as community gardens become recognized as both a necessity (for food during a recession) and a desirable neighborhood asset (studies show they raise property values and stabilize residency).
This article appears in Mar 11-17, 2009.