Township to Discuss Permitting Small Farm Operations

Among the topics up for discussion at Thursday's Chatham Township Committee meeting is a possible ordinance to permit farming in the municipality.

Township Attorney Carl Woodward proposed that the committee begin thinking about a farming ordinance at the April 28 meeting. He said that under Morris County guidelines, if a farm owner wants to apply for preservation, the municipality that the farm is located in needs to have an ordinance allowing the right to farm.

"While Chatham Township has a long agricultural history that goes back a long way," said Woodward, it currently does not have a Right to Farm ordinance. There is a farming act dating from 1999 that grandfathered in farms that were in operation before that time, but most of the farms in Chatham Township have been sold for real estate or commercial development over the last 60 years.

To qualify for farming preservation through the county, which would place a deed restriction on the property to prevent its being developed for real estate or commercial purposes, a farm must meet certain county requirements:

• farms must be at least 10 acres;
• at least 50 percent of the land must be tillable;
• at least 50 percent of the land must contain agricultural soil;
• the property must be farmland assessed for tax purposes; and
• the municipality needs to have an ordinance that permits farming.

The committee needs to pass a farming ordinance for qualifying properties to be preserved, but only a few farms in the township meet the requirements. Woodward spoke of establishing an overlay district that would allow the Ferber farm south of Green Village Road, the only farm in Chatham that meets the requirements for farming preservation.

Small Family Farms

In discussing a Right to Farm Ordinance, the committee decided they should also address the needs of the numerous smaller farming operations that may wish to have their land assessed for tax purposes as farms instead of as residences or commercial enterprises. Eventually there will likely be one set of standards for large farming operations and another for small farms or "family farms."

Committee Member Bailey Brower, Jr. said he did not understand why property owners could not use their land as they wished. "What's wrong with raising farm produce on your property?" he said.

"Currently you can have a [grow crops] in your backyard for your personal consumption, but you cannot sell those goods," Woodward said. Only farms that were in operation before 1999 are permitted to continue as farmlands.

Woodward was given a model farming ordinance by the county that he said he would distribute to the committee. He also agreed to draft an ordinance for small farms with restrictioins that would keep the operations from disrupting the neighbors or changing the character of Green Village.

Bailey said the committee should worry about meeting the needs of the residents of Chatham Township instead of referring to the county's standards. "The county is a giant organization run by pygmies, so let's get over that and let's start to solve our own problems," he said.

The small farming ordinance would  apply to small plots of land (under five acres) and limit those operations to crops only. Livestock and animal farming is already prohibited on properties under five acres by town bylaws, and as a courtesy to adjacent properties all animals must be kept at least 100 feet from the property line.

The farming ordinance likely apply only to zoned land south of Green Village Road, and would apply some zoning restrictions that would help define what properties can operate as commercial farms.

To qualify for farmland tax assessment, farms must have five acres of farmland (aside from residences or other structures).

Any farming ordinance will likely take several weeks to go through the necessary steps, including being reviewed and approved by the Planning Board, before it can pass.