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Setting
up a Roadside Stand to Follow Zoning Ordinances, Right to Farm
By Kimberly Warren Associate Editor "Go slowly and carry a big carrot." Nancy Elzer As farm markets become a more popular and viable way for growers to expand on their farming operation, local communities are taking a closer look at where these markets and stands should fit – are they farming or are they commercial? "The first thing you really have to do is go to your local zoning officer," said Diane Eggert with the New York Direct Marketing Association. "If you can work within those regulations, that's great. If not, you have to try to get the variances you need to try to get the laws amended so you can work successfully in your town." Eggert has worked with others in her organization to develop a set of guidelines for zoning officers and farm marketers to work with in setting up ordinances beneficial to all parties involved. "You get more flies with honey than with vinegar," she said. "If we can talk to the planning board and make them understand what it is we need and why we need it and what we're competing against as well as what kinds of things farm markets provide for the community, a lot of times they're more willing to work with us. Those guidelines, she said, are applicable in all areas and are meant as a suggestion of ways that zoning ordinances can be structured to encourage farm markets. "The purpose of a roadside stand is to allow farmers, who are actively farming, low cost entrance into direct marketing their farm products," according to the document. One community in northwest Michigan, like many other rural areas of the country, is facing an influx of new developments and growers who are trying to stay in farming despite the pressures to develop. Peninsula Township, on the Old Mission Peninsula, has already established a purchase of development rights program to encourage growers to stay in farming. Some growers are finding other ways to supplement their farm income, such as roadside stands. Nancy Elzer opened her stand in 1990 when she and her husband, John, realized that the market for cherries was starting to decline and they needed to find a place to sell their surplus peaches. "I knew I had to go to work, but I had three babies," Elzer said. "There were a lot of other cherry stands, but no one had the plans to run it through the (all) seasons." Elzer started with plans to make and sell her own crafts, but soon the market took off and there was no time for that. Her main seller in the beginning was cherries, but soon they had u-pick strawberries and other fruits. Three or four years into it, Elzer purchased a canvas-covered carport where she was able to set up her stand and not have to take it down every night. One day, quite by chance, Elzer began selling plants at her market, and that has ballooned to be one of her biggest aspects of her market – leading her to use some crop disaster money she and her husband received to purchase a greenhouse where they could expand the plant aspect of her business. "As soon as I did this (set up the stand), the township was really in this protective mode. And, at the time I did it, there wasn't anything really written up for it; nothing was really defined," Elzer said. A lot of what Elzer does, she said, is based on Michigan's Right to Farm Act – and she stands behind it. "I was allowed a 32-square-foot sign. It was allowed on all farms for advertising their product," she said. "I put my sign out there and assumed I could do that under the Right to Farm. As long as I was doing what I produced, I thought that I was fine. I think Right to Farm supercedes their rules." Soon, the township began tightening its requirements on signage and other aspects of setting up a roadside stand. And, as more people began setting up roadside stands on the peninsula, the ordinances were more firmly set in order to provide guidelines. "We allow roadside stands, one per site. It they're under 25 square feet, they're not regulated. If they're over 25 square feet, they have to meet some requirements: signage, parking and the type of produce that's sold," said Gordy Uecker, zoning administrator for Peninsula Township. "Produce must be regionally grown, which has been defined as the five county area." The ordinance
also stipulates that it is not meant "to encourage the size of
investment in equipment that would require a commercial zone." "Everyone wants to keep the ambiance of the peninsula," she said. The problem I have is that these officials are damned if they do, damned if they don't because of the polar political situation." But, to Elzer, the only options growers have are to farm or to sell – and she wants to stay farming as long as she can. "We're under such high development pressure. Plan A is to farm, plan B is to develop," she said. "Plan A is to farm, it's what we do. I'd better be able to make money doing what I'm doing. If plan A isn't going to work for me, then I'm going to plan B." But, Elzer said she is bound and determined to stay away from developing, but she wants more people to understand that the farm is more than their home. "We are businesses; we are not residential," she said. "We are fortunate to be living at our business. That's the gift God gave us to be farmers. They (non-farmers) don't realize that we have to be allowed to make money. There are so many things in ag that we have to do that people throw roadblocks in front of." Besides being her business and her home, Elzer Farms – and the farm market – serves as more than just a place to sell her products: it's a place to teach – something she said she can't do if she has to spend her time worrying about the ordinances. "Farming isn't farming anymore. It's an oddity; it's an attraction; it's a lost art that people want to recapture,” she said. “By keeping these farm markets going, you're providing a service – a very, very important service." Elzer said she knows that the peninsula is in a unique situation with it's high development pressures, but she also said she knows that a lot of people trying to establish their farm market are facing similar difficulties with zoning ordinances. "Go slowly
and carry a big carrot," she said. "Because you do have
to live in the community, and this community is your base." |
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