Issuance will set a dangerous precedent and forever open a legal loophole … that’s big enough to drive a tractor through, allowing mixed use business activities to progressively smother protected agricultural lands as surely as bittersweet vines strangle evergreens.”

Arlene Martel

I am having a hard time getting a farm relationship with the serving of alcohol, people coming into sip a martini or whatever.”

Gerald Coutinho

“The commercial use doesn’t have to be farm-like, it has to attract people to the farm. That’s what the bylaw says.””

Attorney Christopher Alphen

You’ve got a very big decision ahead of you that could be a slippery slope. There’s nothing to stop the blueberry guy on Horseneck Road from saying, ‘I think I’ll put up a farm stand, a small venue, and start serving liquor.”

Susan Sherman

It is a petition to operate a saloon, not an agricultural use.”

Paul Vigeant

Weatherlow Farm
845 Sodom Roaad
Westport, MA
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WESTPORT — Days before Westport voters turned out in droves to broaden Right to Farm protections for farms and their activities, a smaller, but equally passionate, audience protested plans by one local farm to take its notion of agri-entertainment to the next level.

At issue was Weatherlow Farm owner Ryan Wagner’s request that he be allowed to add alcohol to the sandwiches and other “farm produced product” menu offerings sold at his 845 Sodom Road farm stand. 

Building official Ralph Souza had rejected the idea so Mr. Wagner appealed to the town Zoning Board of Appeals on January 29. If the appeal failed, his attorney, Christopher Alphen said, he would next be asking for a variance allowing the liquor sales.

After nearly two hours of debate, the board voted 4-1 to deny the appeal. The no vote came from Constance Gee who said she would rather abstain — “I don’t feel that I want to clean up town …”

Whereupon Mr. Wagner asked to withdraw his request for a variance without prejudice meaning that he can reapply at any time (and not wait for two years).

Agri-entertainment debated

Adding beer, wine and liquor to the offerings is not really a change of use for a stand that already sells “meats, pork and beef, prepared foods, sandwiches” and more, Mr. Alphen said at the outset.

The bylaw allows agri-tourism and  agri-entertainment activities “designed to market and bring the public to a farm enterprise … for farm-related experiences and to increase the sale of agricultural products.”

Back when Weatherlow proposed hosting weddings there, Mr. Alphen reminded the board, the building official said “No, no, you can’t do this. The (ZBA) determined that hosting weddings within the barn is permitted under the same section.”

True, the board did approve weddings, Chairman Roger Menard said. But you did not indicate “that you were going to have something more substantial than that, something more daily.”

“In general I have a tendency to support agricultural endeavors,” said board member Raymond Elias. But “getting an alcoholic beverage license in a residential area — I can’t ever see that happening.”

Asked about the proposed hours, Mr. Wagner said they would be limited. In the “high season,” about nine summer weeks, the schedule would be Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, from 9 am to 3 p.m. The rest of the year, hours would be limited to Friday through Sunday.

“I am having a hard time getting a farm relationship with the serving of alcohol, people coming into sip a martini or whatever,” said board member Gerald Coutinho.”

“The agri-entertainment bylaw is written very broadly,” Constance Gee said, and but those who expressed concerns ”were voted down at Town Meeting by those who wanted to do what they want on their property. It was passed and now this is coming back at us.”

Asked how the sale of alcohol relates to farm activities, Mr. Alphen said, “The commercial use doesn’t have to be farm-like, it has to attract people to the farm. That’s what the bylaw says.”

That bylaw goes on to stipulate “For a farm-related experience,” Town Counsel Jeffrey Blake said.

Many things can draw people to a farm, Mr. Coutinho said, “crazy things like motorcycle races. It draws people to the farm (but) do you want to live next to it.”

Agritourism, and how far it is going to go is being discussed all over the state now, he said. “Where does it end?”

“If the legislature won’t define it, if the Department of Agriculture won’t define it, it comes down to people like us to define it, then let it be taken to court. In the long run that’s what’s going to happen. We have to be reasonable and use common sense.”

He added, “If we determine that it’s allowed, there is absolutely nothing to stop him a year from now from tripling the size of the thing.”

The neighbors speak

Audience members, several of whom are farmers, opposed the idea.

Neighbor Susan Sherman said she spoke to Mass. Department of Agricultural Resources and was advised to think of accessory uses as involving products that are actually grown on the farm.

“To my knowledge there are no grapes, no hops, no barley, no potatoes for vodka, (grown on this farm) so unless you can make alcohol out of pansies, eggs or beef, I don’t see how this can be an accessory use.”

Mr. Wagner was allowed to have weddings in the barn, Ms. Sherman said. “He has taken that to be in the barn, on the grounds, at the store, on the deck — it shows a pattern of stretching that definition that the town has set upon him … You’ve got a very big decision ahead of you that could be a slippery slope. There’s nothing to stop the blueberry guy on Horseneck Road from saying, ‘I think I’ll put up a farm stand, a small venue, and start serving liquor.”

Drift Road resident Paul Vigeant expressed opposition in a letter.

“There is no agricultural justification … or any evidence of economic hardship,” he wrote. “It is a petition to operate a saloon, not an agricultural use.”

Arlene Martel, who owns a turkey farm on Old County Road, said the applicant has not shown any evidence of the hardship required to obtain a variance.

“Will he be forced to file for bankruptcy if the farm stand customers shopping for farm-related products are not allowed to belly up to the bar for a shot of tequila?”

“Issuance,” Ms. Martel said, “will set a dangerous precedent and forever open a legal loophole in APR compliance that’s big enough to drive a tractor through, allowing mixed use business activities to progressively smother protected agricultural lands as surely as bittersweet vines strangle evergreens.”

Neighbor Steve Medeiros also worried about precedent, noting that there are some 360 properties presently taxed as farmland in addition to which “there’s a movement among farms — they want to redefine what farming is … under five acres. A guy came up to me and said, ‘I hope this thing passes because if it does, I’m building a barn.”

It’s really stretching things, he added — next it will be “give me a retail marijuana license, give me an exotic entertainment license.”

The decision

As the board prepared to close discussion, Mr. Alphen said, “I have a crazy idea. Could we continue this meeting to have a conversation with the selectmen about the kind of liquor license we’d be looking for?“

The zoners rejected that suggestion.

As to fears about the sort of unpopular uses that might be proposed, Mr. Alphen said, “I don’t think the bylaw says, you know, commercial activities that we think are going to work nicely. I think the definition is clear.”

Mr. Wagner said he is only asking for what the bylaw allows.

“As a business owner who has invested a tremendous amount of time and money into Westport, how am I supposed to make decisions other than looking at the laws that you have put on the books. We have heard from many people, and very loudly, at Town Meeting that there is support for agri-tourism, agri-business, commercial activities.”

Before voting, several on the board offered comment.

“This is a judgement call,” Chairman Menard said. “This is a matter of how far we believe commercial activities to bring people to a farm go.” He said he believes that serving alcohol goes too far. “There has to be a limit somewhere.”

“The potential is there for enormous, never-ending expansion,” with this applicant and others, Mr. Coutinho said.  “This is a time to nip it in the bud, to say this isn’t allowed. And let it take its course, let an appeal be filed.”

Ms. Gee agreed but said “I think it is a real shame that it has come to this and we have to make that stand … We as a town don’t seem to learn lessons about the kind of bylaws that we put forward and pass. We continue to have these bad outcomes. When it affects us personally (we say) we didn’t really mean we want that.”

“Zoning is not a very sexy issue,” Mr. Coutinho said, until the things involved hit home as has happened with this audience. “Maybe people will think twice before jumping into an emotionally charged hurricane.”