A SHARPER FOCUS ON A VITAL POINT...

One important clarification to the earlier blog on Agritourism is that the Township Attorney has recommended to the Board that ALL Agritourism procure an Interim Use Permit (IUP).

The draft Ordinance that the Attorney worked on was submitted to him by the Board. This draft is available on the Township website for your examination. He did what he was asked to do with that, but it is crucial to note that his further recommendation in person at the Board meeting was that all Agritourism get an IUP, thus allowing the Township to place any reasonable, related conditions it feels appropriate to each individual use and circumstance. Mr. Lemmons noted that this issue has already caused costly legal problems for the Township in the recent past.  The best way to avoid this in the future, he recommended, is to require an IUP for any agritourism use. I would agree that this would be a greater safeguard for the common good. If a church, a cemetery, ANY church or cemetery, has to get a special use permit (in those cases, a Conditional Use Permit), then surely a use that would increase traffic, noise, etc,, might logically be required to go through such as process as well.

Citizens should note that if an applicant agrees to all those related and reasonable conditions he or she must be granted the permit.  It is also vital that the Township place ALL conditions that can ameliorate negative impacts on surrounding property values, neighbors' quality of life, etc., when the permit is first granted.

If that is NOT done, then the only guaranteed opportunity that the Township would have to place further conditions on the use would be at a time that the permit holder might need an amended IUP, due to expansion or alteration of buildings and so on.  Otherwise, the permit holder must agree to any additional restrictions that the Township might desire to place after the initial granting of the IUP has taken place.  If, as an afterthought, the Township wants to place additional conditions after they have already granted the use perrmit, it would be unlikely that an applicant--then permit holder-- would agree to any additional regulations when he is not required to do so.  Therefore, this requires a Board that is up to snuff and well-informed.  It also requires an informed citizenry that shows up at the public hearing to let its input be heard.


Your input on how this Ordinance is structured is valuable information to the Board.  If you are unable to attend nextTuesday's meeting, written comments can also be submitted to the Planning Commission/Board.