Pitkin County Greenhouses: April 2009

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Pitkin County Agricultural Land Zoning

The Pitkin County Zoning Code says that Ag-Zones allow a maximum F.A.R. of 15,000 sf in zones AFR-20, RS-20, RS-30 and RS-160. If this is really true, how much F.A.R. do people really need? Can they combine the "barn" floor area with their leftover F.A.R., to create a large greenhouse, sufficient for commercial produce?

Pitkin County Land Use Guidelines

Sustainable Communities Zoning Code

Barns or Greenhouses?

Is a Greenhouse a "Barn" in which "trees, shrubs, flowers or vegetables are grown"? Here is a chart showing the "barn floor area" in excess of F.A.R. that properties of 20-acres or more may build, under current Pitkin County regulations. Shouldn't we allow something for 10-acre, even 2-acre properties? (click on an image to see it blown up larger by your browser - click the back button to return to the blog)

Zoning for a Local Food Economy

Agriculture is an Historic land use in Pitkin County. The heritage of farming here includes limited row crops beyond potatoes, and continues today as primarily grass farming for cattle.
We are entering a new era of farming in the West, a time in which local production of all kinds of food crops, and year-round growing of vegetables in greenhouses, offers us a way to grow a robust, local food economy. Here we can control the diversity, quality, safety and healthfulness of our food, and we can build the soil better each year while we're growing, organically.
Some of our Community Members are renowned Growers for this new era. Jerome Osentowski, founder and director of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute (CRMPI) in Basalt, has developed 25 years of knowledge in the art of growing even Mediterranean and Tropical plants in greenhouses, through our cold Winters. Mango, papaya, anyone? How about fresh, delicious salad greens for your New Years dinner? Valentines Day?
Ken and Gail Kuhns, growers and owners of Peach Valley CSA, Western Colorado's oldest community-supported agriculture farm, have provided nearly twenty years of seasonal produce to hundreds of families in our region.

How can we encourage this new era of local food production? What land-use changes must we make in order to encourage local agriculture?
This blog is an attempt to begin this disussion, by exploring the potential of "scaling" greenhouse agriculture, for literally "acres indoors", for a sustainable, local food economy.

Pitkin County Greenhouses