City officials in Long Beach, California, south of Los Angeles, are laying the framework for an Urban Agriculture Enterprise Zone program “that would encourage more urban farms to crop up in vacant lots across the city,” says the Press-Telegram. If the lot owners commit to the urban farming program for at least five years, they would qualify for lower property taxes.
The urban farming initiative would be linked with a registry of vacant lots, said the Long Beach newspaper. The registry would lead to routine inspections to see that lots are maintained. Rex Richardson, the city’s vice mayor, said the hope is for the registry and urban farming program to mesh and connect landowners with a tenant responsible for the upkeep of the property. “That would be a win–win for everybody,” Richardson told the Press-Telegram.
A 2014 state law allows cities to create urban agriculture enterprise zones to encourage small-scale farming on vacant lots, with property taxes set according to the value of the land for farming—which is lower than the full market value that’s ordinarily used to calculate taxes. Long Beach began working on a local farming program last year, after the Los Angeles County board adopted an ordinance for unincorporated areas that authorized the county’s 88 cities to set up urban farming zones, said the Press-Telegram.