Canadian Lawyer

20 F e b r u A r y 2 0 1 5 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m nique Montreal startup Lufa Farms set out to grow food where the people are. In Canada, while we might be spread out over a vast geo- graphic territory, more than 80 per cent of us live in cit- ies. So instead of ploughing a field or building greenhouses on the periphery of the community, the company's founders looked into the heart of the city and turned their eyes skyward. They decided the best place to grow food was in greenhouses on top of buildings, right in the city's core — based on the concept that rooftop urban farms can be designed to feed cities in a com- mercially viable and sustainable way. In recent years we've grasped onto con- cepts like rooftop farming and green roofs, not just in the temperate climate of the west coast, but also in cities with less moderate climates across the country. Prompted by environmental and social pressures, it's a movement encouraged by many cities and the people who live in them. When Lufa was ready to launch, it found Montreal hadn't yet developed zon- ing guidelines for urban agriculture on commercial/industrial sites. That meant the company had to navigate the zoning and building codes and make requests for variances, followed by public con- sultations. "Fortunately, our experience has been mostly positive to date and we haven't encountered significant obstacles to rooftop agriculture uses. Tax classifica- tion has probably been our most signifi- cant challenge to date — we're still a farm, though in some cases we're assessed as if our greenhouse was office or commercial space — though city officials have been very proactive about working with us to resolve these issues," says James Rathmell, Lufa's chief of staff and corporate develop- ment manager. Rathmell points to Boston's year-old art. 89 as a stellar example of how cit- ies can provide blanket zoning rules to facilitate urban agriculture, both on per- sonal and commercial scales. The city- wide zoning bylaw allows for commercial urban agriculture on a wide scale to boost food access to underserved communities, provide new opportunities for local busi- ness growth, and develop knowledge and education about healthy eating. It includes an allowance in all zoning districts for both open-air farms and greenhouses on the roof level, and includes conditional use for larger buildings. Although more involved and suscep- tible to public concern, rooftop farm- ing is an extension of the green roof approach, which is seen as a natural pro- gression of green buildings and is being encouraged, even mandated in some cit- ies for any new building of a certain size as communities explore more ways to reduce their environmental footprint. There are a variety of approaches to green roofs, the planting material used r e A L e s tAt e Huan Tran Green on top Bylaws and other regulations are starting to take hold to cover the burgeoning trend of growing food and plants on building roofs. By Marg. Bruineman U

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