Justice

Farming the Subdivision

A new “agrihood” in California’s Central Valley reworks a former tomato-canning plant into an aspirational suburb.
The Cannery's farm, waiting for the first crops to be planted.Photograph by Tom Fox, SWA

The Cannery, a new planned development in Davis, California, is located on the site of a 1961 Hunt-Wesson factory, which canned its last tomatoes in 1999. Today, the Cannery’s only link with its industrial past is the name. The new 547-unit development is an ode to the locavore lifestyle.

Developed by the conventional (high-end) homebuilder the New Home Company, it has a community clubhouse designed to look like a traditional white farmhouse, and its own five-acre organic farm, which will sell some of the produce to residents.