Council committee advances package to expand city gardens, greenways and permit sale of harvest on city land

City planning staff and councilmembers on Wednesday recommended a set of ordinances and resolutions to expand community stewardship and urban agriculture on city-owned land.

The package includes updates to the adopt-a-lot program, formal creation of a greenways stewardship program, a new city farm/garden chapter to allow longer-term urban-agriculture leases on underutilized park and greenway sites, and changes to park-use rules to permit removal and off-site use of harvested food. City staff said the reforms are intended to make stewardship easier, speed approval processes and allow vendors or leaseholders to harvest and sell or donate produce grown on city property.

Andrew Dash (deputy director, city planning), Mackenzie Plus (senior planner) and Isabella Gross (principal environmental planner) described the suite of bills and an associated small grant from the Open Space Institute: "Bill 562 authorizes the mayor and OMB to enter into agreement(s) with Open Space Institute for grant funds not to exceed $25,000 to acquire privately owned tax-delinquent land to improve greenway connectivity," staff said. Councilmembers asked about insurance and vendor rules; staff said Grow Pittsburgh has an insurance rider available and cited a Grow Pittsburgh rate of $185 per year for coverage as an option for community stewards.

Council members praised community-led examples such as Duncan Parklet and neighborhood orchards. Councilman Cogill, who described an orchard project in his district, said the program will provide free leases and that existing agreements would not be invalidated by the new code changes. Staff clarified that the new garden program will allow people with valid city leases to take harvested food off-site and donate or sell it (previously prohibited by ordinance), and that established community groups on existing sites would have first option to retain stewardship.

The committee gave affirmative recommendations for the bills (including bills 564, 562, 565, 566 and 567). The measures aim to expand access, simplify stewardship agreements and support urban food-production initiatives; staff said additional outreach and details on lease and insurance processes will follow.

What's next: Committee approval advances the package toward full council consideration; staff indicated a post-agenda session would be scheduled for additional discussion with council and community stakeholders.