The Quality Community Council is taking on Companion Farm in Ivy as their next project. http://cvilleqcc.com/default.aspx
Todd, urban farm manager and I have staked out a beautiful little 1/2 acre plot for the pilot season of melons and pumpkins. We should sign a lease on the property by the end of the month.
I'll be moving to DC for a little while, but will be back and forth and keeping in the loop. Amanda Altman may be down here for a month--! Anyone else would be very welcome, as her lack of a car is a small problem in a town like cville.
-VA
Monday, February 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
february meeting and other updates
Hey y'all.
It's probably a good idea to go ahead and pick a weekend for another
gathering to talk about the farm.
Eric suggested the weekend of Feb. 26th. On the other hand, Feb 19th
is a 3-day weekend, which might work better for folks coming from
farther away? Send the list or me your thoughts and I can try to
synthesize them. You can always call me, too- 202 674 0900
Some ideas I and others have had for early action items for the farm
that we could talk about in February (or leading up to february):
Spring garden planting?
Spring or summer natural building workshop on farm?
Local groups' projects on farm
Synthesis of regional/national networking since Oct. '07
thoughts on project and a 501 (c) - non-profit status.
UPDATES:
1. I've been talking with a bunch of y'all about starting early on
with planting as early as spring, and getting other groups involved.
Arnoldo (community organizer with the virginia justice center) and I
visited an organic herb farm in Harrisonburg, VA to check out their
greenhouses to get ideas for winter crops.
2. A few of us have talked about going ahead and putting up a
structure next year, too- either a shed to keep building materials, or
hosting a natural building workshop that would leave us a structure
after the workshop.
3. Diane and I are working with Francisco to organize a long distance
trip for January to a center we're really interested in. So far, we're
talking about Texas, and visiting Colectivo Flatlander
(colectivoflatlander.org) and a farm run by indigenous women out
there, too. Other ideas for a long distance trips? We're also planing
another regional trip for this month. Not sure where yet- ideas?
4. I'm keeping an excel spreadsheet of any organizations/centers/farms
we have visited or want to. you can send me any information of places
you visit or want to, and i'll keep it organized.
5. Charlottesville-based outreach is going well. Folks around here are
interested already in the Feb. meeting. Catholic workers, community
orgs, local churchfolk, etc.
6. I need to figure out with my dad which 50 acres of the farm is the
best for this project's purposes. if anyone has ideas of how to
determine that, land-wise, please let me know. Right now I'm going by
the access road, the pond, seemingly good farming land?
Thursday, November 1, 2007
[The Ivy Project] It's a go on the farm!
Hey everyone.
Quick note before I get to bed-
I met with my dad today to talk about the proposal I'd sent out to the group. Unnecessary details aside, here's the deal with the land:
It's technically under three owners- dad, my brother, and myself. There's nothing in the way of our doing whatever I want with my 3rd (50 acres). Free and clear. So, we can unofficially, for now, divide off 50 acres and proceed.
He suggested using the back 50 acres by the creek and woods, because of access to it by the side road. The road we used to park the cars isn't technically our entrance to the farm. We could think about buying up a teeny bit of land around that access road in back to ensure it's always open to us, or looking into the neighbor's road we used to drive into the farm last month. Anyway. Details.
night night
va
Quick note before I get to bed-
I met with my dad today to talk about the proposal I'd sent out to the group. Unnecessary details aside, here's the deal with the land:
It's technically under three owners- dad, my brother, and myself. There's nothing in the way of our doing whatever I want with my 3rd (50 acres). Free and clear. So, we can unofficially, for now, divide off 50 acres and proceed.
He suggested using the back 50 acres by the creek and woods, because of access to it by the side road. The road we used to park the cars isn't technically our entrance to the farm. We could think about buying up a teeny bit of land around that access road in back to ensure it's always open to us, or looking into the neighbor's road we used to drive into the farm last month. Anyway. Details.
night night
va
Monday, October 29, 2007
Zoning Issues and Tax Status
The biggest hurdle we face in developing the Ivy land is the zoning restrictions in Albemarle County Rural Areas:
Albemarle County Code Ch18 Zoning10 Rural Areas.pdf
Section 10.2.1 details the uses that we're allowed by right, such as: one and two family dwellings, farm stands, agriculture, temporary construction, tourist lodging, farmworker housing (up to ten occupants), etc.
Section 10.2.2 details the uses for which we would need a special use permit, among them: community center, civic clubs, private schools, farm sales, etc.
See the definitions in section five at:
Albemarle County Zoning Regs.
At issue here is that 'community organizing and popular education retreat center' is, of course, not on either of these lists. So where do we fit in? Or, more helpfully, how do we avoid the need to get a special use permit, which would be a time-consuming, energy-draining and arduous public ordeal?
One possible loophole is that a project which receives public funding is exempt from special permit. So, for example, if we got a grant from the USDA, or made some sort of agreement with UVA, then we would be exempt.
Another would be to define our project within the criteria for use by right: say a "tourist and farmworker solidarity farm," or something.
Secondary in importance to the zoning issue is the land's tax status:
Right now all 158 acres are under "land use" tax status, which means that it is taxed only $190/year based on the fact that it is used for agriculture. Were some portion of the land to be built about, that portion would fall out of land use status and be taxed at the market rate for developable land. Furthermore, back taxes for the past five years would have to be paid on that portion of the land. This isn't too big a deal, because if we put a building on say 1 acre (that's a pretty big building, even with some non-agricultural landscaping), then only 1 acre falls out of land use. We're talking (I don't have the numbers in front of me), probably something like $5,000 in taxes. However, the property taxes on the building likely will be more than that each year...
Unless, of course, it's owned by a non-profit, it which case the taxes are like zero. Otherwise, it's something like 0.74%, which isn't bad, but we would simply need to have a revenue stream dedicated to pay those taxes every year. And the more structures we build, the more we'll have to pay.
Just to clarify again: the zoning and tax status are two completely separate issues. We cannot change the zoning—that is set by the county. We can change our tax status, based on what we do with the land, and we can decide how much we pay, based on our ownership structure.
Eric
Albemarle County Code Ch18 Zoning10 Rural Areas.pdf
Section 10.2.1 details the uses that we're allowed by right, such as: one and two family dwellings, farm stands, agriculture, temporary construction, tourist lodging, farmworker housing (up to ten occupants), etc.
Section 10.2.2 details the uses for which we would need a special use permit, among them: community center, civic clubs, private schools, farm sales, etc.
See the definitions in section five at:
Albemarle County Zoning Regs.
At issue here is that 'community organizing and popular education retreat center' is, of course, not on either of these lists. So where do we fit in? Or, more helpfully, how do we avoid the need to get a special use permit, which would be a time-consuming, energy-draining and arduous public ordeal?
One possible loophole is that a project which receives public funding is exempt from special permit. So, for example, if we got a grant from the USDA, or made some sort of agreement with UVA, then we would be exempt.
Another would be to define our project within the criteria for use by right: say a "tourist and farmworker solidarity farm," or something.
Secondary in importance to the zoning issue is the land's tax status:
Right now all 158 acres are under "land use" tax status, which means that it is taxed only $190/year based on the fact that it is used for agriculture. Were some portion of the land to be built about, that portion would fall out of land use status and be taxed at the market rate for developable land. Furthermore, back taxes for the past five years would have to be paid on that portion of the land. This isn't too big a deal, because if we put a building on say 1 acre (that's a pretty big building, even with some non-agricultural landscaping), then only 1 acre falls out of land use. We're talking (I don't have the numbers in front of me), probably something like $5,000 in taxes. However, the property taxes on the building likely will be more than that each year...
Unless, of course, it's owned by a non-profit, it which case the taxes are like zero. Otherwise, it's something like 0.74%, which isn't bad, but we would simply need to have a revenue stream dedicated to pay those taxes every year. And the more structures we build, the more we'll have to pay.
Just to clarify again: the zoning and tax status are two completely separate issues. We cannot change the zoning—that is set by the county. We can change our tax status, based on what we do with the land, and we can decide how much we pay, based on our ownership structure.
Eric
Monday, October 22, 2007
Two ways to post and view
There are two ways to post to the Ivy Project bloglist, which incorporates the functionality of a blog and a listserv together in one:
On the web:
http://projectivy.blogspot.com/
Or via email
projectivy-owner@googlegroups.com
You will receive another email shortly inviting you to sign up for the blog. The advantage to using email, however, is that one must log in to post directly on the blog. For posting by email, please remember...
Two important rules:
1) Most email programs, when you hit "reply" include in full the message to which you are replying. Please delete that text. Otherwise it will be posted on the blog, which will quickly become unreadable, and resent to everyone in the group.
2) Also, please remove the "Re: [Project Ivy] from the subject line of your email, as that will become the title of your blog post. If it's easier, we can drop the [Project Ivy], but I figured it would be helpful to identify group emails.
You can send images. Just attach them to your email, and they will be posted on the blog and emailed to the group over the list.
If you use a free email service which places texts ads at the bottom of your messages, those ads will be posted to the blog, and emailed to the group. This is presently unavoidable.
If you want to post comments directly on the blog, that's great. Just keep in mind that, unlike the posts themselves, comments will not be emailed to the list—you will need to check in periodically at the blog to read comments.
Peace,
Eric
On the web:
http://projectivy.blogspot.com/
Or via email
projectivy-owner@googlegroups.com
You will receive another email shortly inviting you to sign up for the blog. The advantage to using email, however, is that one must log in to post directly on the blog. For posting by email, please remember...
Two important rules:
1) Most email programs, when you hit "reply" include in full the message to which you are replying. Please delete that text. Otherwise it will be posted on the blog, which will quickly become unreadable, and resent to everyone in the group.
2) Also, please remove the "Re: [Project Ivy] from the subject line of your email, as that will become the title of your blog post. If it's easier, we can drop the [Project Ivy], but I figured it would be helpful to identify group emails.
You can send images. Just attach them to your email, and they will be posted on the blog and emailed to the group over the list.
If you use a free email service which places texts ads at the bottom of your messages, those ads will be posted to the blog, and emailed to the group. This is presently unavoidable.
If you want to post comments directly on the blog, that's great. Just keep in mind that, unlike the posts themselves, comments will not be emailed to the list—you will need to check in periodically at the blog to read comments.
Peace,
Eric
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