From: Evan Wiig
Sent: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 4:45 PM
To: Autumn Buss <[email protected]>
Cc: Wendy Krupnick
Subject: Comments re: urban ag ordinance
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Hi Autumn,
On behalf of Community Alliance with Family Farmers, we want to thank the city of Cotati for continuing to seek solutions that allow for local food production in a way that benefits the whole community.
While we are generally in favor of the proposed changes, we do ask you to reconsider a few provisions:
17.42.220 Community Gardens & 17.42.230 Market Gardens
A. The use of mechanized equipment shall be limited to equipment typically found in residential uses, with operation limited to the hours of 9am to 5pm. An exception is initial site preparation for planting, which may take place for a total of no more than 3 weekdays per year, between the hours of 9am and 5pm.
We are concerned that the above provision lacks clarity and ask that the city focus on tangible impacts of machinery and not whether a tool is typically used, given that there are many small scale market garden tools that, while not typically found in your average home garden, are as or less intrusive to the surrounding neighborhood.
Related to this, we request the city extend the hours of the above-mentioned market garden tools, given the seasonal nature of growing food and to allow those who hold daytime jobs to pursue a market garden, which would be near impossible if they're restricted to 9am - 5 pm. Instead, we request that any existing noise curfews be applied here as they would elsewhere. A weed-whacker or loud music at 6pm on a residential property is no less intrusive than the sounds made by a market garden operation.
Lastly, for everyone's sake, we ask that the city provide clearer definitions to distinguish “Crop production, horticulture, orchard, vineyard” vs "Market Garden", as mentioned in the proposed changes.
Thank you very much. We look forward to the upcoming meeting.
Evan Wiig
Director of Membership & Communications
Community Alliance with Family Farmers