Adopted into law in December 2013, Article 89, the newest Article to the Boston Zoning Code, now addresses a wide range of urban agriculture activities throughout Boston, most notably farming.
To develop Article 89, the BRA worked closely with the Mayor's Office of Food Initiatives and the Mayor's Urban Agriculture Working Group, a group of farmers, experts, residents and advocates gathered together to advise and guide staff. Article 89 is the product of 18 open public meetings of the Mayor's Urban Agriculture Working Group and 11 Neighborhood Meetings, which took place throughout Boston in June and July, 2013.
The final adopted version of Article 89 is a featured document on this web page, as is the final draft of Article 89 Made Easy, an illustrative guide to help "demystify" the zoning language found in Article 89.
Please spend some time at our web page to scroll through many other documents associated with the urban agriculture rezoning initiative including, but not limited to, all of our past meeting notes and agendas, research memos and soil safety guidelines for urban framing written by The Boston Public Health Commission. These soil safety guidelines apply to all urban farms in Boston that use soil as the growing medium.
The finishing touches will be put on Article 89 Made Easy after discussing with the Urban Agriculture Working Group at our last meeting on March 18 at 8:00 AM in the BRA Board Room (9th Floor, City Hall) for review and comment. All meetings are open to the public.