City Hall's attempts to regulate community gardening in Dallas is the story that won't go away: As I mentioned at the bottom of the budget item on Friday, the council's Transportation and Environment Committee will yet again take up the issue tomorrow -- this'll be the sixth proposal to go before the council. This one makes it cheaper to plant -- $215 for the permit, annually -- only, well, you can't sell the produce. And you can't do nothin' till the city approves a site plan. And structures can't be bigger than 10 feet by 10 feet -- and they have to be in the back of the garden (specifically, the "rear 30% of lot").
All that, says Bike Friendly Oak Cliff today, is precisely the kind of over-regulation that'll kill community gardens before they've given the chance to grow:
As we have said before, we should be thankful that we have community gardeners willing to transform vacant lots into gardens. ... In fact, in a city-sized monument to overregulation, at noon on the very same Tuesday, many of the same Committee members will be attending the Quality of Life briefing regarding the problems in Dallas with illegal dumping violations on vacant lots. Problem at noon and citizens contributing to a no-cost-to-the-City solution at 2pm. Only overregulation stands in the way.
