Farmland Protection | Food Systems

The township’s zoning code addresses farmland protection through farm-friendly zoning provisions, including transfer of development rights and sliding-scale zoning.

The code establishes an Agricultural District to provide for the continuous agricultural use of farmland by strictly limiting division of agricultural parcels, limiting conflicting or incompatible uses, limiting lot sizes, preventing the placement of lots on prime production soils, and prohibiting the disposal of waste materials onto soils within the district (§27-401). 

The code references the state’s right-to-farm law regarding agricultural impacts within the district. It allocates development rights for parcels based on parcel size, and allows for the transfer of those rights; it also requires the location of lots, structures, and uses so as to minimize the removal of prime soils from agricultural use and the disruption of farmland and agricultural improvement uses, and requires clustering for all proposed subdivisions containing three or more lots (§27-403).

The code also provides detailed lot area standards and describes limitations on the subdivision of parcels; new lots are generally limited to 50,000 SF in size (§27-404).