Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones: Are Affordable Housing Developers the Ones to Target

This report addresses the intersection of affordable housing and urban agriculture and in particular analyses if state tax incentives for urban agriculture are best suited for affordable housing developers. This is the first report for the Los Angeles Food Policy Council addressing the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones and affordable housing developers relationship to increase the number of community gardens within Los Angeles. The client for this policy analysis is the Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC), with Rosana Franco, Policy Associate as my main point of contact. The LAFPC was created in January 2011 by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Since then, the LAFPC has become an independent organization. The Council is made up of 40 members of the Food Policy Council and its staff that work to push policies forward. The LAFPC is working to make Good Food available for everyone throughout Los Angeles, where healthy food is available at an affordable price, and grown fair and sustainably. Their goals are to utilize policy creation and cooperative relationships to "reduce hunger, improve public healthy, increase equity in our communities, create good jobs, simulate the local economic activity, and foster environmental stewardship. In particular, the LAFPC aims to connect environmental sustainability and local agriculture with efforts to expand access to healthy food in historically disenfranchised communities" (LAFPC, 2018). Urban Agriculture is important to bring nutritious and easily accessible foods to many people throughout the world, but it is especially important for low-income populations as a supplement to their food income. Los Angeles's passage of the local ordinance for the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones (UAIZ) is a policy example of promoting urban agriculture throughout the City. The California State Assembly extended the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones through 2029, so it is imperative that property owners utilize this tax incentive. In Los Angeles, affordable housing and urban agriculture can work hand in hand. Not many of these affordable housing developers are utilizing the UAIZ, but they are still finding a way to create small gardens for their residents. Instead of passively adopting the UAIZ program and allowing people to apply at their own leisure, there should be an active attempt by cities that have created their own UAIZ ordinances (especially LA) to bring in vacant property owners to apply for the tax incentive. A vacant lot registry where the City reached out to property owners and penalizes them for holding onto a vacant lot, is a possible way to get more applicants. Unfortunately, the organizations, such as community organizations or affordable housing developers, that that have goals and missions aligned with urban agriculture, are generally non-profits. These non-profits are able to utilize the welfare tax exemption to reduce their property taxes to almost nothing, wherein the UAIZ Program would not benefit these organizations. If the state's intent is to bring more urban agriculture to California, then the UAIZ must be advertised frequently, the application process must be streamlined and very specific property owners must be targeted to be a part of this incentive.