Students Design Plan for New Community Farm in Madison County
AAMU Urban Planning Students Develop Garden Design to Address Food Insecurity
Alabama A&M students will see their ideas for a new Community Farm become reality for years to come. Alabama A&M University and the Madison County Commission recently signed a five-year agreement to address food insecurity and strengthen research.
Students in Dr. Ahmed Ouf’s Urban Planning Studio 2 class volunteered to work with the county on the physical planning side of the Community Farm as a “community garden.” Their focus? To make the farm attractive, enjoyable and interactive, and safely accessible from the surrounding road system for county residents as well as AAMU students who want to enjoy a few hours in nature.
“We come together and work through our ideas,” says Isaiah Smith, a senior urban and regional planning major from Charlotte, North Carolina. “My role is using my skills in GIS to depict everyone’s ideas digitally and present to the client. GIS stands for geographical information systems. It’s a way to display and analyze data layers and create layouts to present.”
The class conducted a two-week charette, an intense period of design and planning activity, where they toured the community farm and interviewed AAMU students, Madison County residents, and people interested in gardening and nature to come up with a plan to make the farm a desirable destination not just for people picking vegetables, but for the entire community.
“We asked a woman who uses the community garden near Edmonton Heights, ‘If we could add anything, what is one thing you’d like to see?’ says Camryn Cummings, a junior urban and regional planning major from Birmingham. Alabama. “She said she would like somewhere to sit down and rest.”
The new Community Farm covers 65 acres between Normal Hills and J.F. Drake State Community and Technical College on Meridian Street, in Huntsville. District 6 Commissioner Violet Edwards spearheads the project and invited students to work with county staff to make the entire space inviting, accessible, and safe, while providing necessary services and amenities for all who visit. A county engineer and AAMU alumnus, Bryan Primm, the Director of Outreach for Madison County Commission, District 6, visited the class several times in April to discuss ideas. Primm earned his master’s in urban and regional planning (MURP) in 2022.
“I’m a proud alumnus of the MURP program,” says Primm. “I feel the students did an outstanding job of anticipating some of the limitations and restrictions in the design process and provided a plan that pushes past the theoretical and enters into the space of practical, efficient, and possible.”
The student's design plan includes:
- A second entrance to allow for a traffic calming lane and a better-situated bus stop
- A new transportation loop with new activities for the community around the area
- Gardening education area
- Produce washing area
- Cooking demonstration area
- Plant-it-Yourself area
- Home-Garden skill building area
- Seating and shaded area
- Barbecue area with a connection to the housing next door to encourage garden use and allow better community watch
- Surveillance cameras around the site for better protection
- Protection measures from animals and reptiles
- A new exit by the AAMU Student Health & Wellness Center to allow an emergency exit and evacuation route
Students also kept AAMU top-of-mind in their plans.
“Right now, there’s a little sign up, but it doesn’t have a lot of information,” says Taren Taylor, a political science major and urban planning minor. “We want to add a statue to show the relationship between Alabama A&M and to the land, because it’s technically still Alabama A&M. We also suggested an information or education service building where people could visit and get more information about Alabama A&M’s agricultural history, and also to let people know what’s in season right now.”
“We were also thinking about the University’s goal of zero energy by 2030,” says SJ Moore, a junior urban planning major form Miami. “We discussed solar lighting and building a compost area. We want to make more of a connection with the agrarian culture that we come from. I feel we’ve lost our hands in the soil and we’re trying to bring that aspect back to our community.”
Primm says several of their elements will be incorporated into the final plan. He says Commissioner Violet Edwards and Madison County Public Works engineers were impressed with the deliverables and in collaboration with an outside firm, the county hopes to have a final spec by June.
“I thought the students did a brilliant job in conceptualizing what the Community Farm can be, and I was blown away with their integration of technology in a primarily agricultural space,” says Primm.
Their innovation drove Commissioner Edwards to ask the class if they would be willing to design a Master Plan for the Bob Harrison Center, which the class is now working on.
“It is rare for undergraduates to have this kind of opportunity with professional planners and real project stakeholders and clients to prepare them for what comes next in their careers,” says Dr. Ouf. “I am very proud of my students. They are independent thinkers and problem solvers.”
(Photo L-R) Isaiah Smith, Dr. Ahmed Ouf, Alexa Wiliams, Brooklyn Walker, Camryn Cummings, Taelor Boston, Leah Nelson, Planner James Moore, Planner, Huntsville Planning Department; Planner Jo-Beth Gleason; Madison County Commissioner Violet Edwards, Madison County Director of Outreach Bryan Primm, Dr. DedenRukmana, Chair, AAMU Department of Community and Regional Planning