Politics & Government

Committee Recommends Farming as Conditional Use [VIDEO]

Subcommittee submits three options for planning board to consider.

After lengthy discussion and numerous public comments at the Thursday night meeting, the Chatham Township Committee decided to send an ordinance adding farming as a conditional use to certain residential zones to the Planning Board for review.

Mayor Nicole Hagner and Deputy Mayor Robert Gallop examined options for allowing farming. The township does not currently zone for farming, though plots of land more than 5 acres are permitted to have farm animals.

Hagner said she and Gallop came up with three options the committee could pursue for . The first, she said, was to do nothing and require anyone wishing to farm to get a variance from the Zoning Board. The second would be to allow any residence to grow produce for farming on their property, regardless of size or zone. The third, which Hagner pursued, is to allow farming as a conditional use in certain zones and only on particular properties that meet the requirements. In this case, the Planning Board would give permission for a conditional use.

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The third option, Hagner said, "would allow us to give...flexibility in the areas, which are generally residential for special uses like this." Churches and cell towers, Hagner said, are other conditional uses permitted in town.

A draft of an ordinance that would allow farming as a conditional use was drafted for the meeting, but was not made available to the public in advance. Township Attorney Carl Woodard said the draft, with changes requested during Thursday's meeting, would be made available on the Chatham Township website by Wednesday.

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The Planning Board will review the ordinance, as well as a summary of all three options for permitting farming in town, and make a recommendation back to the council on the best course of action.

Green Village Road resident Christopher Struening asked if any studies have been done on possible traffic, property value or water impact on the Green Village area if farming were permitted. The committee said the Planning Board would look into such issues before making their recommendation.

Gallop said he wanted to "get the ball rolling" and send the ordinance to the Planning Board. He said allowing farming in town, and along Green Village Road, in particular, was within the character of the area's history.

"It's been done there in the past," Gallop said, and even presently there was an allowance for anyone in town to grow their own produce. "You're not allowing something that's so out of character. You actually can farm there, you just can't sell it."

Changes to the Draft

Some of the changes recommended by the committee were to limit the times loud equipment can be used on a farm to match the restrictions for landscaping. In the first draft, equipment was permitted "from dawn until dusk" on any weekday, Saturday or holiday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays, according to Committee Member Kevin Tubbs who requested the change.

Tubbs also asked that the ordinance not include permission to use chemical fertilizers, herbicides or insecticides. The family from Green Village Road that requested the ability to farm, the Bucuks, told the committee they wish to run an organic farm from their property, and allowing chemicals to be used on any property in town was a risky environmental move."

Committee Member Bailey Brower Jr. said the ordinance "never envisioned combines driving down Green Village Road or airplanes spraying fertilizer across the property. ... It was sort of a compromise to return to what had been in an area that had been farmed."

Brower also said going before the Zoning Board for a variance can cost "several thousand dollars," whereas getting permission as a conditional use is a cheaper option. "This is a very small operation," Brower said, and the cost would be prohibitive.

Tubbs, though, said he believed requiring a variance from the Zoning Board was the only correct process to get permission for a nonconforming use on a property.

"That is the way that you impose conditions on a property that are property-specific," Tubbs said, and "that is the only way that really definitively, definitely, doesn't run afoul of the Right to Farm Act."

The draft ordinance as written would allow farming only on the southern side of Green Village Road, because, committee members said, the north side abuts county land and wetlands and was deemed inappropriate for farming. It also would not permit farming up to the roadway; there is a buffer of between 100 and 200 feet, according to Woodward.

Opportunity for Public Comment

The question of whether to allow small farming in Chatham has been a contentious one, with a number of allegations against residents of Green Village Road who are both in favor of or opposed to the issue.

"It's unfortunate that some people involved in this has taken this as an opportunity to make some baseless accusations against both neighbors and people on this committee, which I find appalling," Tubbs said. "Some people are playing fast and loose with facts."

and their neighbors, the Millers, want permission to operate a small organic farm on their land. The Bucuks, though present, did not speak at the meeting. Dan Miller opened the comments, saying that to allow farming as a conditional use would help preserve the character of Green Village as it had been for hundreds of years. "We are not looking to hurt the community in any way, shape or form," he said.

Richard Erich Templn, another resident of Green Village Road and firm opponent of having farms in town, read into the record a letter from another neighbor, Vincent Ziccolla, who was unable to attend the meeting.

The letter stated it was "fundamentally unfair" for the committee to change the zoning laws. (Clips from the letter may be viewed in the video attached to this article.)

The letter read in part, "We are the ones who are trying to maintain the status quo. We are not the ones seeking to radically alter the types of activities that may be legally carried out in the neighborhood."

Templin then spoke to the committee on his own accord and asked, among other questions, why the committee did not take currently space zoned as open space and turn it into community farms, such as the or the Kirby property. Woodward said the 17 acres purchased from the Averett family is wooded land and not easily converted to farmland, and Hagner said there are restrictions on the Kirby property that require it to remain as open space.

"If you'll signal out four properties and do this, you're going to do it to everybody else in Chatham. You obviously do not take your citizens seriously," Templin said. "I came here, showed you 60 different houses that don't want this in the community. ... This is the needs of the citizens of Chatham, and I think this is just completely inappropriate. And it shows a great abuse of power, because you're going to do this to everybody else. And I think that's wrong."

Hagner told Templin it was not an abuse of power. "I do think that this is an appropriate thing for the township to consider," she said.

Township Administrator Tom Ciccarone said, "The township committee has worked diligently on this for eight months, trying to serve the community to get this right. I think you ought to treat them with a little bit more respect. ...

"One of the things that I think everybody needs to keep in mind here is that anybody who has property like this can farm it right now. What [they] can't do is sell it," Ciccarone said.

Templin said, "I would give [the committee] a little bit more respect if they actually sought our input. They seem to be seeking it from the other side."

"No one has had more input from the public than you," Ciccarone responded. "You've been communicating on this all year long. So please don't pretend that you've been shut out of this dialogue."

Hagner said she sat down with Templin "for over two hours" and listened to his views.


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