The first home horticulture stand has opened in Sitka, taking advantage of a new zoning ordinance passed by the Sitka Assembly last December.

Anam Cara Family Garden, owned by Tom Hart and Lisa Sadleir-Hart, opened on Wednesday afternoon, July 1, in front of the family home at 815 Charles St. The farm stand will be open from 5:30-7 p.m. on Wednesdays through the summer, according to the stand’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/GardenStandonCharlesStreet.

Before opening the home horticulture stand, the Hart/Sadleir-Hart family (which includes daughter, Muriel Sadleir-Hart) had to go through an extensive process with the city to get approval to sell their excess produce. The hope is the new process will be streamlined so the city’s planning commission can approve permits without home gardeners having to go all the way to the Sitka Assembly for approval.

“We started preparing for opening our garden stand a year ago when we approached the city planner at the time, Wells Williams,” said Lisa Sadleir-Hart, who also is president of the Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors. “He was absolutely supportive of our efforts and coached us through the ordinance change process that would allow the sale of produce from a garden stand on our property in a residential zone. We met with the Planning and Zoning commission three times and the City and Borough Assembly three times, then came back to the Planning and Zoning commission three times after the zoning ordinance was passed. We were really glad to have moved through the public process to ensure our neighbors were supportive of what we wanted to pursue. The total time from the initiation of the public process to the date we actually received our conditional use permit, took about nine months. We had our ‘open garden stand’ event on July 1 and are looking forward to testing this venue for selling our excess produce.”

The ordinance allows garden stands in residential areas, but they are limited to six feet by eight feet. And to reduce the impact on neighbors, stands can only operate four hours a day, two days a week, between May and October. The ordinance specifically doesn’t include livestock or animal products. Home gardeners who set up produce stands in front of their homes will be required to have a business license and pay city sales tax.