Farming Ordinance Subcommittee to Meet June 8

Township Mayor Nicole Hagner said that the subcommittee established at the May 12 meeting will meet for the first time on June 8 to begin discussing a small farm ordinance in Chatham Township.

Presently the meeting is set for subcommittee members only, Hagner said, but in the May 12 meeting she said that the subcommittee would seek input from interested parties during the drafting process.

The primary lobbyers for the ordinance, which will likely not be ready for approval by the committee for several months, is the Bucuk family of Green Village. Thomas and Debra Bucuk purchased property at 461 Green Village Rd. in 2010. Their 24-year-old son Michael wants to turn the property into an organic farm, and the family hopes to sell their produce at the Chatham Farmer's Market eventually.

The Bucuks began to make preparations to farm the land and started a landscaping business, Green Path Landcare, which some neighbors said was operated from the property. One neighbor, Richard Erich Templin, alerted township officials, who have now been out to the property multiple times.

In 1999, the committee passed an ordinance that forbade commercial farming in Chatham Township with exceptions for farms already in operation. The ordinance outlines certain criteria for any farms that wish to apply for a variance to operate in the township.

The ordinance is geared toward larger farms with loud equipment and livestock. The Bucuks say their three-acre property, located in a residential zone, is not going to be a large farming operation, but will grow produce and provide fresh food within Chatham.

Debra Bucuk denies that the landscaping business is operated from their home, and has asked for the committee to find a way to allow them to operate a small farm on the property.

"We're going to make hardly any money on this," Debra said at the May 12 committe meeting. "We're trying to do this to be able to be part of the Chatham Farmer's Market, to bring our organic vegetables there."

Committee member Bill O'Connor said that the committee will try to balance the needs of those like the Bucuks who would like to operate small farms on their property and sell their produce and the wishes of neighbors like Templin, who say that the "pastoral" atmosphere of Green Village would be ruined by farms in the area.

"Everybody should understand," O'Connor said. "The way we look at this is a farming ordinance for the town. It is not an ordinance just for the Bucuks. It needs to deal with it in a way that works for anybody else who wants to run a farm, so it needs to not have a lot of loopholes."

Michael Bucuk volunteered with the Chatham Community Garden in 2010, providing soil testing and helping to erect the fence.

Much of Chatham Township, including Green Village, was farmed land for several decades before the 1950s. Since that time, much of the land has either been developed or remained open but unfarmed space.

The next meeting of the Chatham Township Committee is scheduled for June 9.