The board of supervisors in Los Angeles County took the first step toward implementing a state law that allows local governments to designate urban agriculture incentive zones, with lower taxes for owners of small plots who promise to grow food on them for five years, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The county tax assessor says 56,950 parcels would be eligible; the tax break is limited to plots of three acres or less. Some 8,000 are in unincorporated areas. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said the zones would increase local food production while reducing blighted, vacant lots.
The Times quoted Francesca de la Rosa of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council as saying, “The creation of an urban agricultural incentive zone will help address one of the biggest obstacles to … community food-growing efforts, and that’s access to land.”