Metro-farming in north Carrboro?

One point that caught my attention in last Saturday's meeting to discuss Carrboro's Northern Study Area was the idea of "metro-farming". The current plan includes:

ENCOURAGE “METRO-FARMING”: Encourage the conservation of active farmland within new conservation subdivisions and elsewhere in the Study Area, with emphasis on nontraditional crops or uses (high-value vegetables, pick-your-own berries, apples, etc.) and community-supported agriculture (community gardening, wholesale nurseries, commercial stables, etc.). Metro-farming should be promoted by a special committee that would look into ways to make Use Value Assessments more common and frequently applied.

Yet this is an idea which has not yet been realized. With changing patterns of food consumption and agriculture, the availability of arable land available for small scale agriculture will become increasingly important in the future.

If seems that there are several key areas to be addressed to make this option available and to facilitate its use in Carrboro, given that we already require 40% open space to be preserved:
1) The Land Use Ordinance and/or planning review measures that encourage/require developers to identify appropriate open space sites that could accommodate agricultural use (Harvey Harmon of Beaver Creek, who set up the sustainable farming program at CCCC would be a good resource on this); guidance for developers on how to design open space that can accommodate either metro-farming or a more traditional "use".
2) measures to ensure that the potential for metro-farming is not curtailed; e.g. that HOA documents do not affect it (language in the LUO already speaks to HOA responsibilities vis-a-vis open space); or perhaps permitting restrictions attached to that portion of the property; (there are a number of measures for protecting farmland laid out in Land for Tomorrow's Saving the Goodliest Land report, pg 19); etc.
3) develop boilerplate documents for HOA/farmer agreements. These would spell out benefits to HOA (minimally potential reduced costs for maintenance of open space), a minimal time frame that would be meaningful to a farmer, provisions such as storage areas for farmer's use, access to area by homeowners, possible provision of CSA for residents, etc. It is also possible that the open-space/metro-farming area could be deeded to the town or to a stewardship agency that would oversee its use.
4) once metro-farming areas are established, set up resources within the economic development department to match interested farmers with sites much as we do with commercial uses.

This is an important and exciting concept which we will be discussing further in Carrboro. There are many who might enjoy living with organic farming in their midst, especially if it could be coupled with a CSA and possibly with community gardening space and experienced, knowledgable farmers coming around.