The City of Raleigh has decided that community vegetable gardens are to be encouraged in some areas, but not in others. This policy is at the heart of a very interesting dispute brewing between Raleigh and the owner of the Irregardless Cafe. He wants to build a community vegetable garden on two acres of neglected land. His goal, according to Carolina Journal reporter Sara Burrows, is to grow veggies for his restaurant and foster a sense of community in the area. That is, if city regulations will allow him to do it.

Under the city’s new Unified Development Ordinance — a set of rules for developers designed to create more urban density and less urban “sprawl” — only vacant lots zoned “Residential-10” can be used for community gardens. Gordon’s property is zoned “Residential-4.” The difference? Developers are allowed to build 10 housing units per acre in the former and 4 housing units per acre in the latter. 
R-4 zones are typically used for single-family homes, where R-10 “is more of a multifamily development,” Silver said. 

Most land zoned R-10 is located downtown or near downtown, in what is referred to as “East Raleigh.” 

“Those are the places where we have a lot of what we call food deserts,” Silver said. “So we felt it was OK to have a community garden lot — without a house — there, if that’s what people want to do.”

But city planners did not “feel” it was OK to have “urban” gardens in the suburbs, no matter how close they were to downtown. 

“We felt that if you bought a piece of property and you assumed you bought into a neighborhood, and then all of a sudden next door, there’s a garden that pops up that we wanted to make sure it was in areas that people were comfortable with gardens being next door,” Silver said.