Deanne notes this update to the Decatur Next post regarding the Unified Development Ordinance draft…

DIG IN

The following DRAFT FILES, as of July 21, 2014, are now available for your review:

Summary of Major Changes
A quick-read overview of where significant changes occur in the draft ordinance. (.pdf)

Clarification Notes for High-Performance / Green Building
Details re: community input that any proposed green regulations focus primarily on new development rather than on more typical household improvements, renovations or upgrades. (.pdf)

Draft Articles 1 through 12 of the Unified Development Code, plus Appendix
The full draft, as of July 21, 2014. (16.9mb .pdf)

Certainly make sure to check out the summary of major changes if nothing else.  Note — first and foremost! — the draft ordinance makes changes to Decatur’s animals ordinance, so you can now raise pot-bellied pigs and pigmy goats – but you can only have a total of two!

What post isn’t improved by a picture of a pot-bellied pig?  This photo courtesy of momboleum via Flickr 

Global Growers, which operates Decatur’s Kitchen Garden, sends out this announcement…

Bordered by several acres of bamboo forest, Global Growers Network’s (GGN) training farm along Snapfinger creek is invaded by young bamboo shoots each Spring.  To protect the health of the farm, GGN will, for the first time, invite the community to help maintain the bamboo from spreading.  Pick-Your-Own Bamboo Shoots days will take place each weekend in April and May, on a RSVP basis. A member of the organization will guide attendees on how to harvest, prep and cook bamboo shoots.

Bamboo plays a crucial part within the Network’s operations. As not only a great building material for fences, trellises and stakes, the material serves as a familiar overlap for many of the different cultural groups working with the organization. By hosting Pick-Your-Own Bamboo Shoots harvests, GGN hopes to facilitate a deeper knowledge of the species, as well as raise money for the growing operations among the associated farms and gardens.

GGN’s Pick-Your-Own-Bamboo-Shoots Days are on a RSVP basis only: tickets sold on BrownPaperTickets.com

$5 for all you can pick bamboo shoots,  $5 (optional) donation to pay for 1 roundtrip MARTA pass for growers

The Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory and Georgia Organics just released a comprehensive look at urban agriculture policy across the US. The 94-page study surveys the zoning ordinances of sixteen cities, from Nashville to New York and including Atlanta, for the ways in which each municipality has incorporated urban agriculture into its land use plans and practices.

You know you want to download and read this baby. It’s right here.

I, for one, hope that its readers include members of Decatur’s Zoning Ordinance Revision Task Force. There is some valuable stuff in here. Each city in the study was chosen either because of its longstanding support for urban agriculture or because of its recent efforts to revise its zoning. Ultimately, the authors of the report conclude, “there is no exact formula for the successful implementation of urban agriculture initiatives.” Each community needs to craft its own approach, based on the needs of its residents and available land.

That said, some common themes emerge. Most of the cities in the study include provisions in their zoning for community gardens, produce sales, and keeping animals, such as chickens, bees, and yes, small hoofstock (yes, I still want my goats). They do regulate these activities—especially animal keeping—and it’s well that they should, for the well being of both the human and non-human creatures. Read the rest of this entry »

What is “green?” Bamboo floors and photovoltaic roof panels? Sleek LEED buildings and EnergyStar appliances? Granola and weed?

That’s something the city’s looking to explore tomorrow by hosting Steve Mouzon, author of “The Original Green,” for a free public lecture at Agnes Scott. (Full disclosure: I helped with some of the organizing.)

Looking back through history, when people lived sustainably not because they chose to but because they had to, Steve offers a compelling alternative to the idea that high-tech solutions are the only path to sustainability.

As he puts it:

“Before the Thermostat Age, the places we built and buildings we built had no choice but to be green. Otherwise people would freeze to death in the winter, die of heat strokes by summer, starve to death, or other really bad things would happen to them. Today, as we are working to re-learn how to live sustainably, much of the focus is on the gadgetry of green: Gizmo Green. This notion that we can simply invent more efficient mechanisms, and throw in some bamboo to boot, is only a small part of real sustainability.”

Instead, Steve looks at the lessons of the past — sustainability practices that evolved, as opposed to being invented — and examines how they might be incorporated into our future.

What wisdom lies in pre-1900 design and building practices? Join us to find out, 11:30am to 2pm, at Agnes Scott’s Evans dining hall. Get lunch upstairs, then bring it downstairs for the lecture.

Green on!

My neighbors and partners in all-things-chicken and I got our first five birds back in 2004, shortly after I discovered, quite by accident, that poultry keeping was perfectly legal in Decatur. The laying hens were a gateway drug for me. Before long I was fantasizing about having a couple of small dairy goats.

The thing that has kept me from pursuing my caprine dreams, however, is this little phrase in Section 14-7.1 of our city ordinances: “Livestock shall be permitted on properties of at least two acres in size.”

Oh, well. I let it go — until a few months ago, when a kerfuffle about an Oakhurst resident with lots of fowl and, yes, goats, got my attention. According to her blog, the City sent out some code enforcement people to inspect her property and situation. And while she was told to do some clean-up and repair and to move her chicken coop, they determined that her three goats are “companion animals” and allowed her to keep them on her less-than-two-acre lot.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wicked.  From the Gainesville Times…

Sustainable agriculture groups have seized on the opportunity of the first open agriculture commissioner seat in more than 40 years.

Georgia Organics and Emory University on Thursday will hold what they are calling Georgia’s first sustainable agriculture debate.

They say the three men seeking to be Georgia’s second agriculture commissioner in more than 40 years have agreed to participate in front of a packed house at Emory University School of Law’s Tull Auditorium.

…Some 600 people responded to an invitation from the Atlanta-based organization to come to Thursday’s debate, [Georgia Organics Communications Director Michael] Wall said.

The response has been such that Cinnat Howett, Emory’s director of sustainability initiatives, had to hire security guards and extra custodians.

A bit more info on the event HERE.