By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- During the regular Monday night meeting, the township board of trustees voted unanimously to postpone the second reading of an ordinance modification to the accessory buildings ordinance.
The ordinance, 46-242 (1) (c)-46-242 (d) (2), 46-242 (3) and 46-282 (b) (6), is in regards to accessory buildings under the Right to Farm Act. It would remove the decision of which farms or farm buildings will qualify for the farm exemptions from the director of planning and building and require the property to qualify pursuant to the state laws governing the Right to Farm Act and the Department of Agriculture written Generally Accepted Agriculture and Management Practices (GAAMPs).
“It was written before the right to farm act actually was put into place by the state law, and the building official determined what farm or farming operation qualified to get any kind of an exception out of an accessory building ordinance,” said Bill Dinnan, building director. “Now that the right to farm act is in place, all of this is regulated by the state, and pursuant to some activities that are going on within the township currently, the township attorney and I suggested that we take that part of the ordinance that sets that to the building official out, and strictly let it refer back to the right to farm act, which, like it or not, trumps our ordinance anyway.”
Trustees on the board were concerned that by doing so, any amendment to GAAMPs would then be a requirement for residents that qualify.
“To vote in favor of this ordinance change would do the following: It would first place the future of Brandon rural residents in the hands of unelected bureaucrats and not at the community level where it belongs,” said trustee Bob Marshall. “Nobody else is going to be making our decisions, I’m not comfortable with that. Secondly it make mandatory that which is currently only voluntary.

So if we say that our guidelines will be based on Right to Farm and GAAMPs, our ordinance would make that mandatory, and the GAAMPs, under right to farm, is strictly voluntary.”
Dinnan said the issue at hand is a current court case with someone claiming to be a farm, but postponing the ordinance would not affect the case.
“We’re in a court situation right now where someone is reporting they are a farm, with two goats,” said Dinnan. “That doesn’t work. I don’t think that meets the intent of the ordinance.”