A Feasibility Study for Urban Edge Agricultural Parks - SAGE

• Establish Ardenwood as a vibrant, regional center of social and culturalcelebrations.In the past six years, several key elements of the Business Plan have beenadopted, including expansion of visitor days from 4 to 6 days per week andrefinements of contracts with “partners” to coordinate and integrate them morefully into the service and program offerings of the Farm. However, other elementsof the Plan have proved more problematical to establish. Visitation goals of between2,000 and 3,000 people per day for April – November have not been reached.Plans to develop an event space and expanded education center have notprogressed, due to issues with security, parking, and adjacency of residentialneighborhoods. Needs for inclement weather classroom space and expanded basicvisitor facilities have been postponed primarily due to financial constraints.Even while the Parks District refines its strategies for implementing its BusinessPlan, Ardenwood is clearly successful in its goal to continue to be a center ofcommunity life, especially in the fall harvest season, as media stories attest. (Seeattached article from the San Francisco Chronicle, October 29, 2004.)AgPark ConceptArdenwood Historic Farm is already a fully functioning educational farm. Theconcept for adding an Agricultural Park element integrates the Farm’s mission ofoffering education, farmland preservation, and a non-urban community resource,with the Project’s goal to help small farmers to gain access to affordable land andbuild local markets.The elements of the preliminary feasibility study presented below include ideas forcommunity programs, expanded agricultural operations, recreational facilities,concession/partners, and public access. At this point, the Project has insufficientresources to assess the many variables in Ardenwood’s current and plannedoperations that would be necessary to produce a preliminary management plan.However, the management plan for the Martial Cottle Park contains information andfactors that could likely apply to an AgPark element at Ardenwood. As stated in theOverview of Farmer Demand section of this report, while the project was able toidentify general demand for the kind of small scale farming opportunity potentiallyavailable at Ardenwood, assessment of demand for this specific site was notfeasible within the resources of this report.DRAFT 1.6.05 45