Sweet Meadow vs. The Sherborn Zoning Board...

Last spring a neighbor complained to the town that we were running a "pet food distribution business" from our farm. Part of the complaint accused us of selling dog and cat food, which has never happened from our farm. After the Zoning Enforcement Officer visited our farm to investigate these allegations he ruled that all of the operations at our farm were lawful agricultural uses and there was no zoning violation.
Unfortunately, this decision was appealed to the Sherborn Zoning Board of Appeals, and after a few months of meetings the 3-member board decided that only those activities involving agricultural products grown or used entirely on our land were protected under state law. In order to protect our business, we have had to appeal this decision to the Middlesex Superior Court.
On February 17, 2010, the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture, after reviewing documentation regarding our farm, issued its opinion directly to the ZBA that “Sweet Meadow Farm and its farming operations should be afforded the protection firmly embedded in [state law],” which exempts farms from unreasonable zoning regulations. Even with this letter our town ZBA still continuing action against our farm at great expense to our town and our farm.

This opinion letter is reproduced below.

We hope that this letter will cause the Town to stop using taxpayer money to pay to defend a ZBA decision that is incorrect. see below for the letter.

Learn more After you read below you may agree that what the town is doing to our farm is wrong. Read the October 2009 article (and huge outpouring of public support) from the Metrowest Daily News: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x366052839/ZBA-orders-pet-food-operation-closed-at-Sherborn-farm

Discussion and support for Sweet Meadow We have a Facebook group, Save Sweet Meadow, that is currently over 600 fans strong! Please join our discussions about our fight with the Zoning Board, and feel free to ask questions. Discussion Board at Save Sweet Meadow (please become a fan)