Agrihoods take root: a housing trend rooted in agriculture

Feeding off the continuing interest in eating fresh, local food, developers are ditching golf courses and designing communities around farms, offering residents a taste of the pastoral life — and tasty produce, too.

Master developer The New Home Co. was looking to build a neighborhood, not just homes, and market research showed that people wanted to connect to community.

[...] it made lots of sense to take this 7.5-acre piece of property and turn it into an urban farm, have that be the focus point," says Kevin Carson, New Home president.

Residents can sign up for a weekly box of produce from the farm, and no matter what their level of participation they get to feel part of something, says Carson.

[...] it turned out many buyers weren't into golf so much as the view, says Ed McMahon, senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C. Since golf courses are big and expensive, developers moved to open spaces, then orchards and pastures, and now gardens and/or urban farms.

The farm has produced tomatoes, sunflower and corn, which were harvested by volunteers and donated to a food bank.

There are two farming businesses and three farmers at Cannery Farm who already have signed up customers for produce boxes and sold some food to area restaurants, says Mary Kimball, executive director of the center.

[...] even if their participation is limited to talking to farmers and visiting the farm stand, "that's still going to be a lot more engagement at their local community level than they've probably ever had," says Kimball.