As cities and towns offer more incentives and planning support for local agriculture, there is still plenty of education and learning to be done to create and sustain local food systems. Enter the Agricultural Urbanism Toolkit.
"A new Agricultural Urbanism Toolkit produced by the Iowa State University’s Community Design Lab offers communities the planning tools necessary to prioritize and ignite urban farming projects," reports Trish Popovitch, "the Toolkit includes process, practice and case studies to help jump-start local urban agriculture programs."
The article quotes Courtney Long, fellow for the Community Design Lab and facilitator of the urbanism toolkit program, in describing the toolkit further: "The toolkit is actually twofold. It’s a process that we go through with communities, and it’s also a research booklet on tactics of agricultural urbanism…"
The toolkit has been beta-tested in three communities of varying size and scale, and includes details for building facilities on both the retail and the production side of urban agriculture systems. The article includes a lot more detail about the toolkits and their application so far.
Legislation to Ban Traffic Cameras Creates Odd Political Alliances
Republicans and the American Civil Liberties Union back bills to ban red light and speed cameras in Iowa, while Democrats and law enforcement want to allow cities and counties to retain automated traffic-enforcement tools.
Urban Farming Addressing Hunger (and More) in Pittsburgh
Urban farming provides opportunities to increase food security in addition to other benefits.
Urban Ag Activists Up In Arms About New Study
Researchers looked at the carbon footprint of urban farming versus conventional, and the results were surprising.
Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”
Study: Maui’s Plan to Convert Vacation Rentals to Long-Term Housing Could Cause Nearly $1 Billion Economic Loss
The plan would reduce visitor accommodation by 25% resulting in 1,900 jobs lost.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Wind Energy on the Rise Despite Federal Policy Reversal
The Trump administration is revoking federal support for renewable energy, but demand for new projects continues unabated.
Passengers Flock to Caltrain After Electrification
The new electric trains are running faster and more reliably, leading to strong ridership growth on the Bay Area rail system.
Texas Churches Rally Behind ‘Yes in God’s Back Yard’ Legislation
Religious leaders want the state to reduce zoning regulations to streamline leasing church-owned land to housing developers.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
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