There’s some really interesting urban farming news tucked deep inside IMCA’s recent case study of Decatur entitled, “Healthy Decatur: A Holistic Approach to Sustainability“.  (h/t: 231 Sycamore)

First up, word of a possible community garden close to public housing…

[Active Living Director Dan] Magee has since contemplated starting a community garden near public housing run by the city’s Housing Authority. He is considering possible locations within the neighborhood or at a recreation center, and has made it a priority to identify champions who can build community support, involvement, and a sense of ownership. “That’s the community that needs it most,” he said, noting these residents’ poor access to healthy foods.

Secondly, a recent agreement with the United Methodist Children’s Home to convert two acres of their land into an urban farm…

In 2010, Decatur hopes to seed urban agriculture by rolling out its plans for a large urban garden—a partnership among the city, its school system, Agnes Scott College, Columbia Theological Seminary, and local restaurants—on property along the city’s southeast border owned by the United Methodist Children’s Home. With the mayor’s strong interest and support, the city reached an agreement in 2009 with the Children’s Home as part of the Decatur Agriculture Initiative (DAI) to use two acres of its property to grow fresh produce. The acreage is considerably less than the ten acres Mayor Floyd once envisioned for an urban farm, but it will enable the city to create its largest urban garden and assess the benefits. And the costs should be significantly lower than the $150,000 that Peggy Merriss originally estimated would be needed to start an urban farm.

News that the mayor dreams of a Decatur “Slow Food” Festival…

“My dream,” said Mayor Floyd, “is that some day we would have a slow food festival,” with the objective of spotlighting healthy foods that are locally grown. “I don’t know how it would all work, but it’s totally community driven, and with this property available, the opportunities are just endless.”

And finally, it sounds like the city may have abandoned the smaller, 2nd Avenue garden plan in favor of the larger Children’s Home project.

Similarly, when the mayor started talking about developing an urban farm, [City Manager Peggy] Merriss had suggested that a good first step would be to include $20,000 in the 2009 city budget to start the smaller-scale community garden on city-owned land in Oakhurst. The city started planning that garden in mid-2009, just before reaching an agreement to use part of the Children’s Home property for the larger garden to be developed in 2010.

I’ll check in with the city and see whether that last point is true or not.  Regardless, mock ups of both farm projects can be found on Sustenance Designs website if interested.

UPDATE: From City Manager Peggy Merriss…

The Sugar Creek garden (aka Second Avenue floodplain) is alive and well. We have asked the Oakhurst Community Garden to take the lead in working with the City’s Active Living Division, the Decatur Education Foundation and resident Lindsey Mann to provide a proposal for development and use of the Sugar Creek garden space. I expect that we will get something from them after the first of the year.