Aqua Green Go Urban Farm

To whom it may concern,

We are an up and coming Urban Farm in central Tucson, we have been in research and development for over 7 years with aquaponics and arid farming techniques to help educate the community on how to grow their own food and conserve water while doing so. Our goal is to provide fresh vegetables, fruit, eggs, and quality fish for our neighborhood and beyond, through teaching, sharing, and cooperative work. We will adhere to Urban Agriculture ordinances, Arizona Game and Fish, FDA, and USDA regulations.

We plan to have a community barn raising for our subterranean aquaponic greenhouse using sustainable building techniques like seen with Taos Earth Ships (tires, dirt, repurposed bottles for cobb and bottle walls) in conjunction with Natural Building Works, we will be hosting workshops weekly showing how anyone can build with these materials. Once the structure is built, we will also be having aquaponic workshops for the community, showing that this method is around 85% more water efficient than traditional soil methods. We have planted an edible food forest with over 85 trees in the ground, with more to be planted this spring, we also have many soil methods shown on the property for education.

This Subterranean Aquaponics Greenhouse, designed in collaboration with Ray Clamons owner of Natural Building Works, utilizes sustainable, natural and repurposed materials such as onsite soil, used automobile tires, salvaged metal and wood, discarded glass bottles, and more. The 20’ x 60’ greenhouse is excavated 6’ below existing ground level which is then retained with courses of tires packed with onsite soil by sledgehammers. A metal roof structure holds up the clear acrylic panels. The sustainable building techniques utilized in this project are chosen to be accessible to people with or without any building experience and taught in way to responsibly expand the use of low carbon and repurposed materials and methods. Sizing follows accessory buildings per Tucson code.

Located in central Tucson Aqua Green Go Urban Farm LLC has achieved business status this year, engineering and zoning is complete, and we are ready to get permits for the build. If we get funding and approvals in a timely fashion we hope to start building by mid-March and completed within one year or less. The excavation is done and most of the work will be relatively quiet, we will adhere to noise ordinances. A perimeter rusted corrugated fence will also be installed to lessen the impact on neighbors. Regular functions once complete will have no impact on surrounding neighbors besides being able to purchase fresh produce, eggs, and fish right next door.

We are reaching out for signatures to garner city code support for our project. If you can find it in your hearts, we would appreciate a signature, printed name and address, job title if applicable, to show you support this project. We will be hosting free workshops for anyone who would like to join in our barn raising. We will announce build dates once everything is set in stone.

Thank you for your consideration,

Jake Ginsburg

Rebecca Graham

Aqua Green Go Urban Farm LLC

Please sign here below in support of the building of subterranean greenhouse at Aqua Green Go Urban Farm