SALISBURY — A committee studying Livingstone College’s request to allow an urban farm will recommend that Salisbury require a public hearing before any group can start farming inside the city limits.
The committee will make the recommendation to the Salisbury Planning Board at 4 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall, 217 S. Main St.
Livingstone College has requested adding agriculture to areas zoned institutional-campus. The college wants to resurrect an urban farm off Brenner Avenue that was active in the 1950s and ’60s.
The committee will suggest requiring that the college and any other group that wants an urban farm go through the city’s special use permit process, which includes a public hearing.
“We are headed into uncharted territory for the city of Salisbury,” said David Post, a Planning Board member who recommended the special use permit process for urban farms.
The committee has met repeatedly with Livingstone officials, most recently on July 29.
City staff proposed not changing the definition of agriculture and codifying only the basic parameters for an urban farm. The special use permit process would allow standards to be filled in with each unique case.
The committee and Livingstone have had a series of congenial discussions about how the farm would operate and be regulated, including cultivation, processing and distribution.
The suggestion to use the special use permit process, which will delay the start of the college’s farm and have an impact on plans for the fall semester, surprised Joe Fowler, consultant for Livingstone.
City staff explained that requiring the process will bring any proposed farm before the public. Livingstone could proceed with other activities while waiting for the special use permit, including an herb garden on the campus and stumping, grubbing and trail-building on the proposed farm site, committee members said.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the text amendments as proposed by staff and recommend the special use permit process for proposed urban farms.
Any future urban farm in the city would be regulated by agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Planning Board member Jo-Ann Hoty, who had expressed concern recently about composting and fertilizing, said her concerns were addressed during the July 29 discussion.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.