HELP SAVE OUR HORSE FARM
Donation protected
My name is Diane. I am a farmer. I farm a 22 acre horse farm. I have been teaching horseback riding and managing my own farm, raising my own hay and caring for horses for 30 years. I live in an Agricultural District in an Agricultural community. Recently I approached our town for permits to construct an indoor riding arena so I could teach my students year round. Paid Town officials told me I didn't need to do more than apply for a building permit since I was located in an agricultural district. We financed over $180,000 in preparing the site and having the building constructed. I was granted a building permit for an agricultural building. When construction of the building began, the town changed its mind that I needed to put in an application for a site plan. I did apply at their request and from there things got only worse. We had to hire a lawyer to protect our rights and help interpret the laws.
We went to the Town planning board meeting in March and the unreasonable requests and restrictions were above and beyond anything we could afford. Our lawyer pulled us from the public hearing and we went in front of the Zoning Board of Appeals. This has now been drawn out since Feb 29 and we are still not able to use the building. We lost a Zoning Board appeal and they sent us back to the Planning Board to resubmit the site plan documentation.
We followed all the rules we were given. We did NOT budget in the expense of legal fees into building our indoor ring. We can't use it, especially during this hot weather. I also am a cancer survivor and being in the sun on my medication is very hard on me.
I hope to take this hardship that has been put upon myself and my farm and try to educate town officials on what it means to be in an Ag district and that they are chasing farming out of the towns.
Please help so I can afford to keep my farm and keep teaching young and old the value of horsemanship and life!!!
Please feel free to share the link to this page with anyone you may feel would be interested in helping, thanks!
http://www.gofundme.com/c038ks
We went to the Town planning board meeting in March and the unreasonable requests and restrictions were above and beyond anything we could afford. Our lawyer pulled us from the public hearing and we went in front of the Zoning Board of Appeals. This has now been drawn out since Feb 29 and we are still not able to use the building. We lost a Zoning Board appeal and they sent us back to the Planning Board to resubmit the site plan documentation.
We followed all the rules we were given. We did NOT budget in the expense of legal fees into building our indoor ring. We can't use it, especially during this hot weather. I also am a cancer survivor and being in the sun on my medication is very hard on me.
I hope to take this hardship that has been put upon myself and my farm and try to educate town officials on what it means to be in an Ag district and that they are chasing farming out of the towns.
Please help so I can afford to keep my farm and keep teaching young and old the value of horsemanship and life!!!
Please feel free to share the link to this page with anyone you may feel would be interested in helping, thanks!
http://www.gofundme.com/c038ks
Organizer
Diane Schoonmaker
Organizer
Accord, NY