If the township alters the ordinance, Ramsburg will have the opportunity to follow through with his plans for a farm store that will allow him to sell his products directly to the public, shortening the gap between the farmer and the consumer. "I think that the ball is still solidly in their court." "We'd be interested to see whether the township will choose to change the ordinance," Ramsburg said. The attorney general is prepared to bring legal action against the township if changes are not made, officials said in September. Ramsburg had plans to add a slaughterhouse to accompany his farming operation but was awaiting a change in the zoning ordinance that prohibits farmers from processing and selling poultry in certain areas of the township. Last year, township officials told Everett "Beau" Ramsburg, owner of Rettland Farm, LLC, that he could not process and sell chickens at the Baltimore Pike Farm. Another recommendation was made to change the ordinance to permit "custom butchering or on-farm slaughter operations." Kane also recommended the township remove the 50-acre minimum requirement for a farm-related business since the Right to Farm Act defines a normal agricultural operation to require only a 10-acre lot size. The line violated the Municipalities Planning Code, which forbids a municipality from having stricter restrictions in a zoning ordinance than those already outlined in the Right To Farm Act, according to the letter. The letter came after the Attorney General's office found the municipality was violating the Right to Farm Act, a state law protecting normal agricultural operations from unauthorized local regulations, last September.Īmong the recommendations, the Attorney General Kathleen Kane stated in the letter that the township should delete a line from its definition for livestock that says "raising of livestock shall not include a slaughterhouse nor a stockyard used for the housing of animals awaiting slaughter." The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office has proposed several amendments to a Mount Joy Township zoning ordinance concerning slaughterhouses in a letter dated May 4.
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