Community Agriculture Planning Project: A New Urban Planning and Local Agriculture Initiative in San Diego County

Many people lack access to affordable healthy foods. Community-based food production, such as community gardens, farmers markets, and urban farms, are an important source of healthy and culturally appropriate food; yet most cities have restrictive ordinances that pose barriers to community-based food production.  The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) is partnering with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to implement the Community Agriculture Planning Project (CAPP), an urban planning and local agriculture initiative in San Diego County. 

CAPP is a systematic, multi-jurisdictional approach to proactively assist cities with food system planning.  Working with six partner cities across San Diego County, CAPP seeks to increase access to healthy food environments by modifying local plans and policies to increase community food production, access and consumption. Initiative phases include: 1) training, relationship-building and visioning; 2) analysis, feasibility testing and action-planning; and 3) implementation and evaluation.  It ensures that new policy directions reflect existing community plans goals and work with, rather than against, the city planning process.  CAPP employs a multi-dimensional approach including the provision of training, technical assistance, new tools and resources combined with a community engagement model to establish city policies and implement local food projects, such as urban farms, farmers markets, and community gardens in underserved neighborhoods of San Diego County.

As a result of phase one, six cities have become active partners in CAPP, devoting significant staff time to build their knowledge about community agriculture policies and to work collaboratively with their respective CAPP team partners.