Cleveland gave the go ahead for property owners in the city to raise chickens and bees yesterday. It’s the first in a hoped-for bevy of urban agriculture enabling legislation in the city of Cleveland.

We’re wondering, what would you do next? (post a comment or email us)

What’s next to actually help get urban farmers into the business of raising chickens and bees in Cleveland?

What’s next on the agenda to promote more urban farming?

Here are some ideas and pending legislation provided by Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, a strong advocate for the chickens and bees legislation, to get you started:

• Legislation to be drafted on local food purchasing provisions (absolutely in our City Hall jurisdictions, suggesting incentives to those who wish to come on board in the city of Cleveland)
• Legislation regarding urban agricultural overlay districts and their application (more intensive uses, more acreage, overlays so council per community maps out a more full, more agrarian urban reality.

  Case in point—the Old Stanard School site (East 53rd St. and Stanard, between St Clair and Superior), which as you know was graced by A Piece of Cleveland and the City Demolition Department, Damian Borkowski, who teamed up with awesome Ward 13 code enforcer Katie Hough, St. Clair-Superior CDC Director extraordinaire Jamie Baker with the help of Emmy and Jess Levine, wondercitywonderwomen, to take the old structures down brick by brick, used by neighbors for their folkpaths/gardens/backyard patios instead of going into landfill and, by the way to the team: PSA!!! FREE BRICKS STILL AVAILABLE! See Jamie Baker or Katie Hough if you are interested.

  Stanard School will be our first mapped site in the city for this UrbAg zoning.

• I will be sending $5000 back to the Finance Department this week from my budget to pay for the first (fill in the blank) however many chicken/bee permit applicants come in - as long as the money’s there. First come, first served (so if Director Carroll says each permit is $5 dollars, I’ll pay for 1,000 of them).
• Figuring out how to leave plumbing/water connections underneath demolished structures so we can irrigate gardens/farms/greenspaces with pre-existing infrastructure AND THEN work with Sustainability Czar (Andrew) Waterson and Fran DiDonato, Water Department leader Chris Nielsen and greenworld champion Matt Zone to ensure affordable dependable supply of water.
• With Morgan (Taggart at the OSU Extension) and Carl (Skalak, owner of Cleveland’s Blue Pike Farm), provide an easy-to-use handbook for young Jedi farmers (done collaboratively with city of Cleveland and our partners).

The portal is open to more ideas.