P&Z OKs Rules For

Farmers’ Markets At Fairfield Hills

By Andrew Gorosko

Following discussion at a July 15 public hearing, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members approved zoning regulations that allow a for-profit farmers’ market as a permitted land use at the town-owned Fairfield Hills core campus.

The new regulations will effectively allow the entity known as the Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market to do business at Fairfield Hills. The market has been operating at Fairfield Hills on Tuesday afternoons for the past several weeks under a temporary permit from the P&Z.

The Fairfield Hills core campus is located in the Fairfield Hills Adaptive Reuse (FHAR) zone, a land use zone that was created by the P&Z in the past to allow the central grounds of the former state psychiatric hospital to be put to new uses endorsed by the town government.

In approving a farmers’ market regulations, P&Z members decided that such a land use is consistent with the tenets of the 2004 Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

The regulations approved by the P&Z allow a “certified farmers’ market” as defined by the state Department of Agriculture to do business at Fairfield Hills.

The P&Z defines a farmers’ market as a seasonal outdoor event where items are offered for sale to the general public, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, plants, flowers, eggs, honey, maple syrup, dairy products, jams, jellies, and baked foods, plus seasonal items including Christmas trees, cemetery baskets, and others. “Temporary food establishments,” as defined by the Connecticut public health code, would not allowed at farmers’ markets at Fairfield Hills.

Before P&Z members approved the regulations, they discussed the new rules at length with Mary Fellows, who is the market master for the Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market.

P&Z Chairman Lilla Dean explained that the P&Z finds itself in an “awkward position” in terms of allowing for-profit farmers’ markets at Fairfield Hills because the P&Z does not allow for-profit food vendors to do business at sporting events held at Fairfield Hills.

Ms Dean pointed out that farmers’ markets are a different type of business than are food vendors at sporting events.

Ms Fellows that some of the farmers who do business at the market are local and some are from elsewhere. She said that her farmers’ market is strict about whom it allows to do business at the weekly event.

P&Z member Robert Mulholland said that the P&Z opposes the consumption of food at farmers’ markets.

George Benson, town director of planning and land use, said the P&Z does not want an entity that calls itself a farmers’ market to effectively become a fair that is held on public property.

Mr Benson stressed that the farmers’ market formerly had been conducted on private property, but now would be held on publicly owned property.

Ms Dean noted the regulatory complexities of allowing a for-profit farmers’ market on public property such as Fairfield Hills.

P&Z members have grappled with the difficulties of allowing a for-profit farmers’ market at Fairfield Hills, while excluding for-profit food vendors from Fairfield Hills, she noted.

“We’re going to get caught in a [regulatory] bind because it’s public property,” she predicted.

For the past several weeks, the Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market has been held on Tuesday afternoons in a wooded area near Newtown Hall and Woodbury Hall at Fairfield Hills.

Ms Dean told Ms Fellows that the farmers’ market has a “great location.”

In the past, the farmers’ market was held on land behind St John’s Episcopal Church on Washington Avenue in Sandy Hook Center. It later briefly was held at Lexington Gardens on Church Hill Road.