DETROIT (AP) — Detroit’s planning commission has approved the city’s new urban agriculture zoning ordinance.

The Detroit Free Press reported that Thursday night’s action takes the city closer to officially recognizing community gardens and encouraging new and larger urban farms. The commission is an advisory board to the Detroit City Council, which could take up the proposed changes in early 2013.

The decision doesn’t settle whether Detroit will sell vacant residential lots on the city’s east side to Hantz Farms for a large-scale tree-growing project.

The City Council is expected to take up the Hantz Farms proposal Tuesday.

Hantz Farms wants to put vacant Detroit land to use for agriculture. Some neighborhood activists and nonprofit leaders have opposed Hantz Farms’ plans, saying they amount to a land grab.