HOWELL, NJ — Howell Township farm owners have again urged township officials to grant them the ability to hold events on their properties, giving them a way to make money that will keep their farms afloat.
Holding weddings and other kinds of celebrations at farms has become very popular over the last several years, and a number of the farms in Howell are looking to get in on that trend.
Howell Township officials say they are trying to find a solution that helps the farms while not opening the town to litigation over special carve-outs that would not be available to other commercial entities.
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The sticking point appears to revolve around the number of attendees at an event. Howell officials want a limit of 30 attendees for a simple event permit. Larger groups would require more extensive approvals from the township’s planning or zoning boards, to cover potential safety issues and to give neighbors the opportunity to speak out.
Proposed ordinances were initially on the agenda for one of the November council meetings, said Joseph Clark, the township manager. But they were pulled after the town received feedback from the farm community.
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With spring arriving and wedding and shower season near, the town’s farmers say the need for a solution now is urgent.
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That includes Ronald and Susan Springer, owners of the Herbary at Bear Creek Farm on Lakewood-Farmingdale Road.
Susan Springer said they have had several people come to the farm with the hope of holding events there, but without a mechanism to get an approval in place from the town, she has declined to take deposits.
“These farms are something that are charming and wonderful and special about Howell,” Susan Springer said. “The need is there and the desire is there” for people to use them for celebrations and other events.
Cheryl Questore of Ford Road said she was hoping to hold her daughter’s bridal shower this summer at The Herbary, but said the 30-person limit is too small to accommodate her family.
For Vanessa Pascale of Legacy Ranch on Hulses Corner Road, the pressure is significant because she not only need to pay her mortage, but she needs the money because hers is a livestock ranch, and the animals need to be fed.
She said the farm participates in the New Jersey High School Rodeo Association but the 30-person limit would keep them from making money.
“How are we supposed to generate any money without the numbers?” Pascale asked.
“When we do special events, birthday parties even pony rides or riding lessons, they have taken down our signs,” she said. “Twenty years I’ve been trying to do this and it’s ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that.’
“There’s tons of stuff that we can do but we’re unable because the town doesn’t allow us to do anything,” she said. “I’m on the verge of losing my property at this point in time because we can’t do anything.”
Matthew Howard, the township’s director of community development who also oversees building permits and code enforcement, said township officials have been looking for a solution that balances the needs of the farm community with the rights of neighbors.
An initial solution offered a three-tiered approach, Howard said:
There even have been discussions of a “site plan lite,” a less-intense site plan to meet the needs of both the town and the farms, Howard said.
The town is holding firm on the site plan approval because town officials need a demonstrable, defensible position if problems arise from a farm holding a large event. Approving the use of the farm for large events through a site plan review gives the town that ability when a neighbor complains.
The drawback, he acknowledged, is there are more costs involved in going to the town boards for approvals.
The bottom line, however, is these events would be a commercial use.
“Other businesses in town would love to have carve-outs for them, too,” Howard said.
A site plan typically requires a design showing how safety measures — such as emergency vehicle and fire truck access — would be implemented and how parking for the anticipated attendance would be handled, along with addressing stormwater runoff.
Other issues that would be addressed are food-service health concerns, from how it is stored to whether there is on-site cooking and methods for preventing foodborne illnesses.
“Neighbors have a legal right to raise objections” to proposals for event venues, Howard said. “With an administrative approval we’re taking that away.”
And when an event begins to cause problems and a neighbor asks why they weren’t notified, the site plan approval gives the town good legal standing, he said.
“I’m dealing with that right now with a use that has been so wildly popular it is causing nothing but problems for the surrounding area,” Howard said, with noise and people parking along the road and walking along a road, creating a safety issue. “And it’s got site plan approval.”
The town “could be creating 12 more of these,” he said. “I hope it’s so popular that we have issues like that. But I also hope those issues are thought through and figured out through a site plan.”
Howard said one farm in the township has gone the site plan route and is holding events, but acknowledged the site plans come with added costs.
Mayor Theresa Berger urged Clark to press the town’s land use attorneys for answers and potential solutions quickly to help the town’s farms.
“It would be amazing and it would be good for them and for the town,” Berger said. “Put it ahead of something else.”
Clark said the issue is not being backburned, but the attorneys are just being cautious.
“We are making a whole cloth out of something that does not exist in any other ordinance in any other town in the state,” he said. “We are trying to thread the needle” and do it legally.
“I am hoping to spend the next 10 years of my life on this farm,” Ron Springer said, noting a petition supporting The Herbary’s quest to hold events has more than 5,500 signatures. “I enjoy it and my heart is in it.”
Betty Velez Gimbel of Squankum Brook Farm, the founder of Howell Farmers United, urged Clark and the administration to be consistent with the town’s master plan for facilities that host family events.
One of the issues the farmers have raised, she said, is the town wants to require one parking space for every two attendees, while houses of worship, movie theatres and restaurants all are required to have one parking space for every three people.
“Farm events tend to attract families,” she said, like movies, restaurants and houses of worship.
“Time is of the essence,” she said. “Our farmers need to conduct business so we can keep farms in Howell.”
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