February 5, 2009
The Assembly unanimously approved legislation today sponsored by Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow that would clarify the state’s farming law so that a farm selling firewood could no longer be considered an industrial lumberyard.
“Farming has evolved and farmers have had to expand their sources of income,” Karrow, R-Hunterdon and Warren, said. “We cannot punish farmers for selling firewood on their farms whether that wood was grown on their own farm or at another location.”
The legislation, A-609, was prompted by a Mount Olive farmer who received a zoning violation for selling wood obtained off-site. His family had been doing so for decades, but the town’s zoning officer deemed it a logging operation and lumberyard.
“If our laws can be read so that a family farm can be interpreted into a lumberyard, we must correct them,” Karrow said. “Our hard-working farmers should not have to worry about getting a ticket for selling agriculture on their farms.”
The bill passed 78-0, and now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Karrow, who is to be sworn into the Senate Monday filling the former seat of U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance, R-Clinton, said she plans to continue pushing the measure as a senator.
