Identifying Land for Community Gardens in the City of Victoria: Exploring the Process of Creating and Conducting an Urban Agriculture Land Inventory by Jennifer Anne Sauter B. A., Wilfrid Laurier University, 2007 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the School of Environmental Studies Jennifer Anne Sauter, 2014 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. Supervisory Committee Identifying Land for Community Gardens in the City of Victoria: Exploring the Process of Creating and Conducting an Urban Agriculture Land Inventory by Jennifer Anne Sauter B. A., Wilfrid Laurier University, 2007 Supervisory Committee Dr. Valentin Schaefer (School of Environmental Studies) Supervisor Dr. Trevor Lantz (School of Environmental Studies) Departmental Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Valentin Schaefer (School of Environmental Studies) Supervisor Dr. Trevor Lantz (School of Environmental Studies) Departmental Member The City of Victoria is experiencing increased food insecurity due to its location on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, and a lack of food production in the city. The practice of urban agriculture presents a potential solution, enhancing food security by localizing resources, while increasing access and participation with local food production. Based on urban agriculture land inventories (UALIs) conducted in Portland, Vancouver and Nanaimo, my research evaluates and develops site selection criteria specific to Victoria for conducting a community garden land inventory focused on identifying land for allotment and commons gardens. I also examine the underlying barriers or supports for allotting land to urban agriculture in Victoria. To generate site selection criteria and explore the barriers and supports, I conducted interviews with urban agriculture experts, including city planners; community garden activists, educators and individuals involved in non-profits, and urban producers engaged in urban food production. The site selection criteria were further assessed as primary criteria for their application in GIS or secondary criteria to be considered during site visits. The final primary site selection criteria were land use and type, water availability (within 6.8 m), proximity to density users (within 400 m), minimum size thresholds of 1189.2 m2 for allotment gardens and 139.4 m2 for commons gardens, and excluding buildings, heritage designations, and protected green space. The analysis of the primary criteria resulted in a map illustrating 248 potential sites for community gardens in Victoria, whereby 213 were only suitable for commons gardens and 35 were suitable for allotment or commons gardens due to the larger size threshold. Four of the resulting sites were ground-truthed using site visits, and had medium to high potential for community gardens. The site visits documented secondary criteria, including proximity to community hub or prominent location, sunlight, ecologically sensitive area, cedar trees, and pollinator habitat or vegetation. Highlights from the interviews included iv identifying the most influential factors to allotting land to urban agriculture: the perception and awareness of urban agriculture, the community, the politics of City Council and staff support, and the costs or financial supports associated with community gardens. Overall, this research provides a model for the decision making process behind establishing an UALI, and contributes to understanding the challenges to allotting land to agriculture in the urban environment. v Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ii Abstract iii-iv Table of Contents v-viii List of Tables ix-x List of Figures xi-xii Acknowledgments xiii Dedication xv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Urban Agriculture Land Inventories 3 1.2 Thesis Objectives 5 1.3 Methodology 6 1.4 Thesis Organization 7 1.5 Study Area: City of Victoria 8 Chapter 2: Status of Urban Agriculture in Victoria 11 2.1 Defining Urban Agriculture 11 2.1.1 Community Gardens 12 2.2 Urban Agriculture Policy in the City of Victoria 25 2.3 Community Gardens for Food Self-reliance and Food Security 28 2.3.1 Food Security and Self-reliance in the City of Victoria 30 2.4 Conclusion 31 Chapter 3: Literature Review Urban Agriculture Land Inventories 32 3.1 Land Inventories in the Planning Context 32 3.2 Survey of Current Urban Agriculture Land Inventories 33 3.3 Characteristics of Urban Agriculture Land Inventories 36 3.3.1 Objectives 36 3.3.2 Land Considered 37 3.3.3 Developing Site Selection Criteria: Stakeholders, Interviews and Public Consultation 37 3.3.4 Site Selection Criteria 39 3.3.5 Ranking Criteria 42 3.3.6 Analysing the Land 43 3.4 Review of Portland, Vancouver and Nanaimo UALIs 45 3.4.1 Portland 46 3.4.2 Vancouver 49 3.4.3 Nanaimo 52 3.5 Conclusion 54 Chapter 4: Interview Design 57 4.1 Methods 57 4.2 Purposeful Sampling of Specific Groups 58 vi 4.2.1 Resulting Participants 60 4.2.2 Interview Process 62 4.3 Question Development 63 4.3.1 Question 1: Primary and Secondary Site Selection Criteria 65 4.3.2 Question 2: Determining Size Classes for Community Gardens 68 4.3.3 Question 3: Most Important Criteria 68 4.3.4 Question 4: Most Important Criteria in the Context of Food Security 69 4.3.5 Questions 5 & 6: Barriers and Supports to Allotting Land for Urban Agriculture 69 4.3.6 Questions 7 & 8: Site Identification and Participant Recommendation 69 4.4 Interview Analysis 70 4.4.1 Thematic Coding 70 4.4.2 Identifying Site Selection Criteria 71 4.4.3 Prioritizing Site Selection Criteria 72 4.4.4 Mapping Existing Urban Agriculture 73 4.4.5 Participant Recommendation 73 4.5 Conclusion 73 Chapter 5: Interview Results and the Establishment of Site Criteria 74 5.1 Introduction 74 5.2 Question 1: Primary and Secondary Criteria 74 5.2.1 Soils (ALR and well-drained soils) 76 5.2.2 Not to include protected green space 77 5.2.3 Land-use (Public and Institutional, Residential) 78 5.2.4 Water Availability (based on water mains) 80 5.2.5 Accessibility (proximity to bus stops; proximity to bike lands and sidewalks) 81 5.2.6 Distance from Major Roads and Rail Corridors (30m away) 84 5.2.7 Question 1 a) & b): Is anything important missing? 88 5.3 Question 2: Size Classification 92 5.3.1 Large Scale Growing Operations 92 5.3.2 Small Scale Growing Operations 93 5.3.3 Community Gardens 93 5.3.4 Growing on Impervious Surfaces or Poor Soils 94 5.3.5 Highlights of Group Responses to Size Classifications 94 5.4 Question 3: Most Important Criteria when Selecting a Site 95 5.4.1 Summary of Most Important Criteria 96 5.5 Question 4: Most Important Site Selection Criteria in terms of Food Security 97 5.5.1 Summary of Most Important Criteria in terms of Food Security 97 5.6 Question 5: Barriers to Allotting Land for Urban Agriculture 98 5.6.1 Perception of Urban Agriculture 99 5.6.2 Community Opposition or the Lack of Community Support 99 5.6.3 Politics of City Council and Staff Support 100 vii 5.6.4 Awareness and Interpretation of City Policy 100 5.6.5 Who is going to take care of it? 100 5.6.6 Costs Associated with Community Gardens 101 5.6.7 Availability of Land 101 5.6.8 Outliers 102 5.6.9 Summary 102 5.7 Question 6: Supports to Allotting Land for Urban Agriculture 104 5.7.1 Awareness and Perception 105 5.7.2 Education, Outreach and Advocacy Groups 105 5.7.3 Community Support 106 5.7.4 Neighbourhood Association 107 5.7.5 City of Victoria 107 5.7.6 Contribution of Resources 108 5.7.7 Economic Conditions and Financial Supports 108 5.7.8 Outliers 109 5.7.9 Summary 109 5.8 Question 7: Mapping Existing Sites 110 5.9 Summary of Interview Results 111 5.9.1 Primary and Secondary Criteria 111 5.9.2 Barriers and Supports 114 5.9.3 Potential Sources of Error 114 Chapter 6: Community Garden Land Inventory 116 6.1 Final Site Selection Criteria 116 6.2 Interpreting Primary Criteria into ArcMap 117 6.2.1 Land Use 117 6.2.2 Water Availability 122 6.2.3 Proximity to Density Users, Community Hub or Prominent Features 125 6.2.4 Heritage Designations 125 6.2.5 Not to Include Protected Green Space 126 6.2.6 Soil and Ground Cover Analysis 127 6.2.7 Sun 130 6.2.8 Size Classifications 130 6.3 Implementing Primary Site Selection Criteria 132 6.3.1 Digitization of Potential Surfaces and Land Uses 133 6.3.2 Eliminating Unsuitable Spaces 136 6.3.3 Identifying Site Attributes and Ranking Criteria 141 6.4 Assessing and Ranking Secondary Criteria 147 6.5 Site Profiles 147 Chapter 7: Resulting Sites and Discussion 153 7.1 Summary of Research 153 7.2 Significance of Results 154 Bibliography 160 viii Appendix A: Site Visit Forms 177 Appendix B: Supplementary Interview Questions and Materials 179 Secondary Interview Questions 179 ix List of Tables Table 1: Types of Community Gardens (Barbolet, 2009). 13 Table 2: City of Victoria’s Community Gardens Policy’s Guidelines for Selecting New Sites for Community Gardens on Public Property (Community Gardens Policy, 2009, p.3). 14 Table 3: Chronology of UALIs Conducted in North America detailing the Authors’ Association, Purpose and Client. 35 Table 4: Common physical site selection criteria from 19 UALIs surveyed. 40-41 Table 5: Census data to rank social capital from the Akron UALI (Oulton, 2012, p.17). 42 Table 6: Comparison of Portland, Vancouver, and Nanaimo’s Population, Land Area and Density with the City of Victoria (City of Portland, 2014; Statistics Canada, 2012b; Statistics Canada, 2012a; Statistics Canada, 2012c).