Politics & Government

Lawsuit Over Farming Law Dismissed

Mayor Nicole Hagner said the township will be able to file a fee application as well.

Chatham Township Mayor Nicole Hagner said a Morris County Court judge has dismissed the lawsuit over the township's market garden ordinance.

Township Attorney Carl Woodward was away and absent from Thursday night's meeting. Hagner said she received an email from one of Woodward's colleagues stating, "The motion was granted to dismiss the lawsuit."

Additionally, Hagner said the court would let the township "file a fee application relating to failure to provide discovery."

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The lawsuit was served in June 2012 by an unincorporated association of residents of Green Village Road, including Jim and Shirley Honickel, Richard Erich Templin, Chris and Kristen Struening, Michael J. and Nicole O'Connell and Vincent and Thea Bancroft Ziccolella. They are suing both individually and as members of the Citizens Against Ordinance 2012-05, the market garden ordinance.

These residents claimed the market garden ordinance, passed by a 3-1 vote of the Chatham Township Committee in 2012, was contrary to the township's 2006 Master Plan Re-examination Report.

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The master plan encourages "the continuation of remaining agricultural activity" and the preservation of "agriculture as a way of life in Chatham Township where it exists." According to the suit, the ordinance does neither.

Chatham Township Attorney Carl Woodward filed a response Thursday to a lawsuit filed by several residents of Green Village over the market garden ordinance which demands for the dismissal of the lawsuit with prejudice and the awarding of court costs and attorneys' fees.

The response denied allegations made in the lawsuit and stated "all actions taken by the Township were legally justified, were privileged and represented the exercise of rights equal to or superior to the rights of the Plaintiff[s]."


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