By BILL BARLOW /Special to the Sennel
UPPER TOWNSHIP — With approval, or at least a waiver, from the Upper Township Planning Board, and a commitment from the township Green Team to provide volunteers, Bill Simmerman seems set to move forward with a plan to host a farm market at his Misty Meadow sheep’s milk creamery on Petersburg-Dennisville Road.
But so far, he has not gotten formal assurance that the township will help the effort in any way.
Simmerman has told Township Committee he does not want money from the township or a commitment of personnel, only an agreement from the township to help publicize the event and potentially help collect the trash that may be generated by additional visitors to the farm and dairy.
At the Monday, Feb. 24, Township Committee meeting, township attorney Daniel Young asked Simmerman to outline his request in writing so it could be reviewed by the township’s risk manager before Township Committee took any position.
“Can we suffice to say that the township has no objection to the farmers market and that we’d be willing to advertise on our social media and website?” Committeeman John Coggins said at the meeting.
“We could do that. If that’s all he’s looking for, that’s fine. We should probably get that request and also to make sure there are no concerns from a risk management point of view,” Young said, adding that he did not want to make things more difficult for Simmerman but that something in writing would define the township’s role in the farmers market.
Committeeman Hobie Young, no relation to the attorney, suggested if the event were called the Misty Meadows Farm Market instead of the Upper Township Farm Market it might reduce confusion, and others on the governing body made clear the township would not organize or run the event.
Plans call for a weekly market at the farm with several vendors offering fresh produce and agricultural products. Simmerman described this as an important way for farmers to connect to buyers and a means to support agriculture in the region.
He plans to offer products from his dairy, and has said he will have sheep’s milk ice cream this year.
Members of the township Green Team and others have been working with Simmerman on the proposal for some time, but committee members first learned of the proposal Feb. 10. Since then, the Planning Board unanimously granted a site plan waiver for the proposal at its Feb. 20 meeting.
In previous comments, Simmerman has argued that he did not need to go to the Planning Board because under his permits as an agritourism business he already has permission to host events.
“We hold events all the time, so I don’t know really what you’re asking me for,” he told committee.
He added that any liability issues connected to people visiting his property for the event would be covered by his insurance, describing liability as a major hurdle in the farming industry today.
“We want to get this done,” Coggins said.
Township engineer Paul Dietrich visited the site and found there is enough parking to handle the event.
The farm is set back from the road, with sheep gathered in wide fenced meadows and several buildings on the site. The farm also has goats and horses.
The proposal faced some questions from neighbor Nathalie Neiss, who has challenged the property’s use as a farm before the township and before county boards. She asked if the farm was a limited liability corporation.
“I have no idea,” responded the attorney.
“I don’t think it really concerns the township,” added Coggins. “It has nothing to do with us how they’re set up to do business.”
“So is it the Upper Township Farmers Market?” she asked.
“Only by name,” Committeeman Young said.
“We are not taking any of the risk. We’re providing tools for advertising,” and Green Team volunteers will help, said Mayor Rich Palombo, “but it’s not our event.”
In the public comment portion of the meeting, she questioned what happened with the previous farm market.
The weekly farmers market launched in 2015, originally in Tom Ulmer’s field just north of the Cedar Square Shopping Center off Route 9 in Seaville. It proved immediately popular and later offered live music but had to move in 2017 over what publications described as an issue with the tax assessment for the field.
Later, in spring 2018, plans for a new market fell apart when organizers canceled plans for that year due to a lack of vendors.
On Monday, Neiss questioned the tax issue.
“Was there a tax appeal? Yes. Did it relate to the farm market? If you asked the township, no. Mr. Ulmer may have a different opinion but I can’t tell you what his opinion is,” said attorney Daniel Young. “He was taxed not as a farm during the period because a farmers market does not constitute a farm. He still had to operate a certain amount of acreage as a farm and he stopped.”
Young said while a farm market may take place on a farm, it does not count as farming.
“He didn’t operate as a farm. He didn’t sell his hay. But that’s a different issue as a farmers market,” Young said.
Neiss argued that the farm is not a permitted use in the neighborhood, stating the area is zoned residential.
Hobie Young said the use has been confirmed as allowable, and that property has been used as a farm since the 1930s, and likely well before that.
Committee members Curtis Corson and Ed Barr abstained from any consideration of the farm market because they have each done business with Simmerman.