The Urban Ag ordinance, the work of a committee of Laredoans who have researched community-supported agriculture in other Texas cities and who have worked with city staff to draft it, came before City Council for its first reading on March 21. It was approved by the seven Council members present.
Now Article V of Chapter 13 of City Code of Ordinances, the ordinance is a measure intended to make local, seasonally-grown food more readily available to all Laredoans through urban farms, community supported gardens, backyard gardens, and other forms of sustainable food production.
The ordinance will allow local growers to eat, sell, and donate their produce without a special use permit.
Those who helped write the ordinance are — according to activist Krissy Gutierrez, a “cross collaboration of educators, city employees, restaurateurs, health and wellness professionals, and community activists.” She said, “They are passionate about the benefits of fresh, locally raised food and its availability to those who may not have access to it.”
Architect Viviana Frank-Bautista, who has consistently beat the drum for the success of the ordinance, has worked with other supporters of community gardens to research the state of urban agriculture in 15 Texas cities.
According to Frank-Bautista, Lubbock, a city in proximate size to Laredo’s population of 255,000, has a strong Master Gardeners program that has fostered five community supported agriculture (CSA) gardens and six monthly Farmers Markets. Austin, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Arlington, Garland, and Plano are among the cities that have an ag ordinance in place and allow backyard hens and livestock.
One of the pivots upon which the local ag ordinance will turn is the historic Canseco house at 1415 Chihuahua (the corner of Chihuahua and Seymour) in District III. The property is owned by the City. Gutierrez said the house, once restored, and its grounds landscaped and in use for demonstration and community gardens, will be a large part of the educational component of the ordinance.
She said that the City has worked with Rialto Landscape Architects of San Antonio for ideas and suggested schematics for low maintenance plants, some native, to create a showpiece of xeriscape gardening and landscaping practices to the east of the home. The firm, well known for its water conservation practices, landscaped the grounds of San Antonio’s Pearl Brewery and the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.
Preliminary Concept, Rialto Landscape Architects.
Frank-Bautista said the 35,000 Laredoans who drive past the Canseco house daily will see a transformation of color and greenery as the grounds come to life with xeriscape; a USDA Community Supported Agriculture garden model; a demonstration garden to teach Laredoans the principles of sustainable gardening, including building optimum soil, composting, water conservation, organic pest mitigation, and organic gardening; and individual plots to produce food for personal consumption, for sale at the Farmers Market or to a restaurant, or for donation to local food banks or pantries.
She said that some of the landscaping around the old home will include ornamentals that reflect the period in which the house was built. She added that grounds and the old structure, once renovated, will lend themselves to classes for Master Gardeners, beekeepers, and poultry raisers; Texas A&M Extension’s AgriLife workshops, and economic development and marketing seminars related to food production.
Beekeeping is provided for in the Urban Ag ordinance, though raising chickens for egg production and backyard goats for milk is still being considered.
Stephanie Garza, the former manager of the Centro de Laredo Farmers Market, said a bounty of locally grown produce will help address the District VII food desert created by HEB’s vacation of its downtown location, a move that has left many of the city’s elderly with little access to fresh produce.
Horticulturist Berman Rivera, a champion of sustainable gardening, knows well the benefits of food production at any scale. He has long been part of the Farmers Market, and his produce is an enticing showcase of real food, real fresh. He, too, is part of the committee that has brought the Urban Ag ordinance to life, and will likely have hands in soil for the revival of the Canseco House grounds and gardens.
“Home gardens, community gardens, campus gardens, the gardens at the firehouses — every garden with a surplus on its hands — will have a venue for selling or sharing at the downtown Farmers Market. They are all welcome as providers,” said Sylvia Bruni, executive director of Laredo Main Street, which organizes the monthly Farmers Market in Jarvis Plaza. “Anyone who has a surplus of fruits or vegetables can call us at (956) 523-8817. We’ll pick it and bring it to the market,” she added.
Bruni said the Urban Ag ordinance is “an umbrella” to educate Laredoans of all ages of the health benefits of gardening at home or on a larger scale.
Gutierrez said that the Canseco home could serve as a multi-use facility with a commercial kitchen that would allow culinary classes staged by some of Laredo’s best-known chefs.
“This will become a great venue to teach school children about food production, gardening, the environment, and water conservation. There’s even an outdoor stage at the back of the house,” she said.
Gutierrez said the food plots of the Canseco house and gardens across the community “will address food insecurity in Laredo and grow our Farmers Market.”
She said that as the work of the collaboration to write the ordinance was winding down, she could see that one of its most viable parts had been to build a model for community reinvestment.
SIDEBAR
Completed in 1924, the old Del Valle/Canseco home is built of poured concrete block in Second Renaissance Revival style. In its glory, the home featured inlaid wooden floors, papered walls, and high ceilings. The 17-room home had a library, four bathrooms, a loggia, two pantries, a basement, two terraces on the second floor, window boxes at every upstairs window, a carriage house, and a formal garden. It was once the residence of Dr. Francisco R. Canseco and his wife Margarita Zambrano Berardi who designed the home to resemble “a small corner of Versailles” where the Cansecos had lived before moving to Laredo. Dr. Canseco purchased French stone cutting equipment for the construction of his home.
Borrowing the stone-cutting equipment from Dr. Canseco, Rosa Benavides built a home at 1519 Matamoros that closely resembles the Canseco home. She built it after the death of her husband Ignacio Nicanor Benavides.
Benjamin and Juan P. Botello were the builders.
