In November 2004, Portland City Council unanimously passed Resolution 36272 calling for an inventory of city-owned lands suitable for agricultural uses. A group of PortlandStateUniversity masters in urban planning students worked throughout the 2004-2005 school year, studying new avenues for urban agriculture and compiling a land inventory using GIS analysis. In June 2005, the students returned to Council with their report, TheDiggable City: Making Urban Agriculture a Planning Priority.

Council accepted the report and directed the FPC to advise them on how best to proceed. In response, the FPC formed an Urban Agriculture Subcommittee and six Technical Advisory Committees (TACs) that met throughout the summer and fall to explore the impediments to urban agricultural uses on city-owned properties and discuss potential management plans. More than 30 community members contributed to a report to be presented to Council in February 2006.

Read the reports.