NEW JERSEY – Senator Steve Oroho and Assemblymen Parker Space and Hal Wirths (all R-24) praised the passage of their legislation that would protect farmers from being ensnared in municipal zoning regulations.
“This important bill will help farmers throughout New Jersey and I’m proud that it passed the Senate today,” Oroho said. “Recently, a local farmer in North Jersey received a zoning violation for selling firewood obtained from a property other than his own. Incidentally, the farmer’s family had sold firewood to supplement their income for centuries until it was deemed a lumberyard by a zoning officer. To make sure this doesn’t happen again in the future, this bill amends the Right to Farm Act to clarify that farms selling firewood are not subject to municipal land use laws or regulations by municipalities.”
The legislation, S-3201, allows a farm or farm stand to sell firewood obtained from another property without being considered a lumberyard under municipal zoning regulations.
It also requires firewood obtained outside of New Jersey to be heat treated and certified as heat treated and pest free by the state of origin in order to be sold in a farm stand or farm location.
“As a farmer myself, I know firsthand that farming is a challenging and arduous job, especially as the economy is facing decade’s high inflation rates,” Space said. “This bill prevents hardworking Garden State farmers from being subjected to the overreaching bureaucracy of township officials issuing zoning violations under false pretenses.”
“Any time we can reduce government red tape to help our farmers is a huge win in my book,” Wirths said. “As it is, many farmers throughout the state operate on razor-thin margins. We need to step up and make sure our farmers are protected from any government overreach.”
