Salt Lake County could break soil as early as next year on an urban-farming plan that would transform dozens of future parks and unused government properties into community gardens and full-fledged farms.
Within the metropolitan county of more than a million people, officials have identified dozens of publicly owned lands that -- although slated for future uses -- could be tapped now to grow food or produce biofuel.
Officials won't say which lands have been targeted, only that the county is eyeing 37 properties (including four for biofuel, up to 10 for commercial farming and the rest for community gardens).
It's a return to the Wasatch Front's agrarian past championed by Democratic County Councilman Jim Bradley last summer to boost food production and put unused government turf to good use -- all without a burdensome bump in the county's budget.
"It is pretty much a win-win proposition," said Jim Goodwin, senior program officer for the Western Rural Development Center and organizer of an upcoming urban-farming conference at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City. "If communities and counties have these properties lying fallow, why wouldn't you put them to work? What could be bad about it?"
The county could begin leasing land to farmers this spring, potentially uprooting weeds from places such as the 64-acre Wheadon Farms property in Draper and replacing them with crops.
The community gardens could take a tad longer to sprout. Program manager Julie Peck-Dabling will recommended to the County Council today a one-year study to determine where community demand is highest and how to come up with the money (or "sweat equity") to build a garden.
"I would hate to say we absolutely won't see a community garden next year," Peck-Dabling said. "We may. But there is a lot of work to do."
The community gardens probably won't come without a cost -- projections range from a modest $300 plot to a pricey $35,000 garden. But the rest of the urban-farming plan will require few other resources.
Peck-Dabling will administer the program from the county's open-space office and act as little more than a facilitator for leasing lands to farmers for food or biofuel production. The county also has formed a technical advisory committee of experts, government officials and landholders to help guide the initiative.
"This program makes a lot of sense," Bradley said. "We make land available and let farmers do the rest."
An urban-farming conference is scheduled to mid-November to help farmers do just that. With an estimated 580 family farms covering 107,000 acres in Utah's most-populous county, the conference aims to make those operations more successful in peddling their products to schools, hospitals and retailers.
Salt Lake County wants to puts dozens of future parks and unused government properties to use by opening them to community gardening, commercial farming or even biofuel production. So far, the county has identified 37 properties. Officials won't say where they are, but provided this breakdown of what they might be used for:
4 » Locations with 30-plus acres that could be tapped for biofuel production. One site, designated for a future wastewater-treatment plant in Salt Lake City, is expected to grow enough safflower to produce 10,000 gallons of biofuel for the city.
10 » Properties with one to 30 acres that could be used for commercial farming. The county wouldn't work the land itself, but rather lease the soil to a farmer for crops.
23 » Patches of less than an acre that the county might use for community gardens.
Source: Salt Lake County
The Southwest Marketing Network will stage a daylong urban-farming conference Nov. 18 to help farmers expand operations and better market their products. The workshop will be at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, 1355 W. 3100 South, West Valley City. Admission is $25 a person in advance and $35 on conference day. Information is available at http://wrdc.usu.edu/urbanfarming.
