Little City Gardens

Thank you for sending a letter in support of the proposed zoning changes! Your voice is very helpful. Please send all letters by January 31, 2011. Below is a basic template for you to use if needed, and the email addresses for all Planning Commissioners. If you are a business, attaching your letter as a PDF file on your company letterhead is ideal.

Send emails to:
rm@well.com, c_olague@yahoo.com, wordweaver21@aol.com, plangsf@gmail.com, hs.commish@yahoo.com, mooreurban@speakeasy.net,  rodney@waxmuseum.com, Diego.sanchez@sfgov.org

Send letters to:
Diego Sanchez
Planning Department
1650 Mission Street
Suite 400

__________________________________________________________________________

(Business Letterhead]

[Date]

Dear Members of the Planning Commission:

[**I/we/name of business urge(s)**] you to support the urban agriculture zoning proposal introduced in
December (Ordinance 101537) along with a few important amendments. San Francisco could be home
to a number of small urban farming businesses that would strengthen the local economy, provide green
jobs, and beautify the city. But the current zoning regulations are a barrier to realizing that potential.

[Personalized language specifically about how the expansion of either commercial market gardens
or community gardens would benefit your business and/or neighborhood and/or why you support the
proposal]

While [**I am /we are**] generally supportive of the proposal, [**I/we**] also share the concerns of the
San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance that a couple of provisions in the proposal would hinder the
development of new garden projects by making them prohibitively expensive. Additionally, to support the
blossoming of these small green businesses in San Francisco, the proposal should be expanded to allow
for a greater variety of on-site donations and sales.

Specifically, [**I/we**] urge you to support the following changes to the proposal:

1) Remove any fencing requirement
The proposal’s requirement that any fences surrounding a garden must be wood or “ornamental” would
place an unnecessarily heavy cost burden on community gardens and market gardens.

2) Remove or waive “change of use” permit fees for urban agriculture projects
Similarly, the current “change of use” fee structure would require future urban agriculture projects to pay
more than $300 before they could even plant a seed at a new site. This is another unnecessary and
expensive hurdle for these types of projects and would hinder their growth in the city.

3) Allow sales of value-added products and pooled produce on site
[**I/we**] urge you to allow gardens and farms to pool together their produce and also allow them to sell
value-added products made from their produce by supporting amendment language that would permit
both.

[**I/we**] hope you will support the proposal with the amendments outlined above.

Sincerely,

[Name]
[Title]

CC: Diego Sanchez, Staff Planner, San Francisco Planning Department