Urban Agriculture Task Force
The Urban Agriculture Task Force was created in March, 2011, by Burlington City Council to study issues of urban agriculture and provide policy recommendations for issues around keeping livestock, composting, urban gardening, and more. The Task Force is a citizen-led group charged with “recommending to the City Council a cohesive urban agriculture policy, improved rules and regulations addressing urban agriculture and steps to better promote urban agriculture in Burlington.” These recommendations will be provided to City Council by March, 2012, in the form of a written report.
Since June, we have consulted with Burlington city officials from a range of departments, as well as local urban agriculture practitioners and experts. We have also presented at all five Neighborhood Planning Assemblies (NPAs) to share our work plan, update residents on the status of our efforts, and gather input from the community regarding opportunities and concerns. We have also begun investigating urban agriculture policies in other cities to identify examples of potential policy approaches.
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Task Force Resources
Backyard Livestock Policy Workshop Video of 18 January Workshop at McClure MulitGen Center
From Goats to Greenbelt Gardening: A New Task Force Defines “Farming” in Burlington by Ken Picard, published July 13, 2011 in Seven Days
Work Plan Review [PDF] Presented at the June 6, 2011, Burlington Food Council meeting by Will Robb and Alison Nihart
June 6 Burlington Food Council Meeting Notes [PDF]
August 1 Burlington Food Council Meeting Notes [PDF]
October 17 Burlington Food Council Meeting Notes [PDF]
Task Force Members
Will Robb, Chair, william.h.robb@gmail.com
Alison Nihart, Researcher, alison.nihart@uvm.edu
Jimmy DeBiasi, Intern
Ed Antczak, Community and Economic Development Office
David Casey, Board of Health
Harris Roen, Planning Commission
Will Bennington, Farmer
Join our mailing list
Keep up to date on Task Force activities – email burluatfb@gmail.com and ask to be added