In early October, our urban ag ordinance was filed with Jacksonville’s City Council. On October 13th, I stood before the Council to say:
I am here tonight to support Bill 2026-0807—Pathways for Urban Ag, formerly the Free to Garden Act. First, I want to thank Councilmen Arias and Peluso for introducing this legislation; Councilwoman Pittman for years of support; and Councilman White for calling this “common sense” legislation. I also want to thank the Mayor’s office and Planning Department for the summer re-write. We are getting really close to making market and community gardens permissible by right here in Jacksonville.
However, to make this ordinance truly work as intended, we need a few critical amendments.
As currently written, any gathering on a market garden over five people is defined as a "market day" and capped at 12 per year, anchored to the city’s garage sale limit. This rule penalizes the very neighbors it seeks to protect as I’ll explain. Furthermore, strict cross-sale rules forbid selling produce or products from other Duval farms, preventing growers from supporting one another.
To put that into perspective let’s use Overalls Farm as an example:
Our monthly "Greens & Beans" community meal uses up all 12 allowed days. When teenagers from the Sanctuary on 8th Street walk over to learn and farm with us on Fridays, we would be out of compliance.
When a neighborhood church meets on our farm during good weather, that would also be non-compliant. So would garden club tours. Or any workshops we might host. In addition, selling honey from a neighbor down the street at any open community event is currently forbidden.
To address this constructively, we are submitting proposed amendments for the public record tonight that ask you to:
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Rename "Public Sales Days" to more accurately "Community Access Days" and increase the annual limit from 12 to 70 days for any & all markets, workshops, and events, while preserving exemptions for routine operations and rolling sales, and
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Permit market gardens to sell agricultural and value-added food products from other Duval County growers.
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Let’s pass a bill that empowers our urban gardeners to feed and foster community.
Lest you think of me as one “voice in the wilderness,” at that same Oct 13th city council meeting, there were 9 other speakers who offered public comment encouraging the amendment and passage of the urban ag ordinance. Since April, we’ve had nearly 100 community and market garden leaders and advocates sign up to share their perspective on the proposed legislation. In that same time, the number of signatures on the Petition for Permission to Grow has far exceeded 1700. In addition to the two co-introducers, we know of seven other city council members who have communicated their support.
We’ve come a long way from 2023 when a group of us at the Duval Food Policy Council began envisioning & researching what “comprehensive urban ag policy” might look like.
However, if you’re counting, we have exactly half of the council (9 of 18) as known supporters, which means: we still help to ensure we’re able to adequately amend and pass ordinance 2026-0807. Would you:
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Join us at city council on Nov 10th (or another meeting) to offer a comment?
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write an email to a city council member (or two or three)? Or,
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Share this message with friends and family?
A day is soon coming when our community and market gardens will leave the legal limbo of yesteryear and, instead, grow boldly (& legally) in the sunshine as proud, contributing, members of our communities.
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If you're ready to grow your groceries... Please, click here to see our services & book a consultation, so we can assess your site; we'll discuss design, answer your questions, talk #s, and get your project lined up. We offer turn-key raised bed food garden support services. Or, if you've already growing your groceries, but need a little seasonal support, click here. If you’d like regular guidance & good soil, learn more about our Overalls.Community. If you just need a quick DIY gardening question answered, try our Overalls Chat Bot. Then again, since this post is closely related to our neighborhood uPick Overalls Farm, click here to join our wait list or follow the Overalls Farm story on FB, IG, or TikTok.
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Nathan, Man in Overalls
Founding Farmer in Overalls
904.240.9592
ManInOveralls@Overalls.Life
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