(Source: www.coloradoan.com)

The founders of Fort Collins’ first CSA farm are hanging up their pitchforks for good at the end of this growing season.

Happy Heart Farm’s Dennis and Bailey Stenson plan to retire and subdivide their west Fort Collins farm later this year. But the couple’s 26-year-old CSA and passion for urban agriculture could carry on at their West Elizabeth Street property.

A new housing and agriculture development called 3 Seeds proposes adding 89 new residences to the 20-acre property, while saving about 3.5 acres for CSA farming.

“3 Seeds, put into one word, would be ‘Agri-Hood,’” Dennis Stenson said at a packed neighborhood meeting held last week. “We are hoping to evolve a really exciting model of how people can come together with the land and create an urban agriculture model for the future.”

City planner Seth Lorson said Fort Collins is encouraging urban agriculture. Happy Heart Farm is among a shrinking number of open agricultural areas within city limits.

The proposed development would feature a mix of single-family lots, duplexes and townhomes ranging from about $250,000 to $500,000. Zoning of the property requires diversity in how the residences would look.

The proposal includes the housing development being run by a homeowners association.

The CSA farm to remain on the property would operate as an independent business, meaning homeowners of the new neighborhood wouldn’t be required to purchase a share of the harvest.

Several neighbors cited traffic and visibility concerns at the neighborhood meeting on the proposal. Before the development can be approved, the city must complete a traffic study.

“The intent is to maintain the core of Happy Heart Farm and then develop a neighborhood that’s centered around open space,” said Craig Russell, a land planner working with potential developers.

The Stensons plan on keeping their current home at the property. The sale of the remaining land to the developers would offer them a substantial retirement package.

The couple met in the 1970s when Bailey was an employee at the Fort Collins Food Co-Op.

“He showed up one day with a new bike and brought it in to the Co-Op,” Bailey said. “He posed with it by the grain bin to get my attention.”

The couple helped start local farmers markets, a mountain bike tourism service and have operated Happy Heart Farm for 36 years.

Happy Heart evolved into one of the state’s first community-supported agriculture farms after the Stensons attended a 1989 conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about farming trends.

When the CSA launched the following year, there were fewer than 100 farms in the country using the model. There are now 26 CSAs offering Fort Collins pickups alone.

“What drew us to the CSA model is that it was very community-oriented,” Bailey said. “Plus the idea that everything we grew was pre-sold. We didn’t have to wait for a market.”

The Happy Heart Farm CSA has 120 members this season.

If the Stensons have their way, the land they’ve toiled on for decades will continue pumping out produce for years to come.

“We are looking forward to how can we develop together a neighborhood around the concepts and values of urban agriculture,” Dennis said. “That’s what Happy Heart Farm has always been so much a part of.”

Written by Jacob Laxen, Follow Jake Laxen on Twitter and Instagram @jacoblaxen.