Limited Brewery License Applicant Takes Next Steps In Mendham

MENDHAM, NJ — A local preserved farm that aims to transform its dairy barn into a farm-based, brewery, is a step closer in the process.

Mendham Township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment voted 5-2 at its meeting on Tuesday in favor of Backer Farm. Several residents filed an interpretation request through their attorney, asking the zoning board to determine if creating the brewery operation on the property — which currently has produce and livestock — would be a permitted use and within the guidelines of New Jersey’s Right to Farm Act.

“Our farm has evolved since our beginning almost a century ago,” said Fred Backer of the family-owned farm in a statement released Thursday. “Agriculture is a constantly changing industry. We continue to evolve as the market for our products and services changes over time. Our planned farm-based brewery is just another way we are meeting the demands and addressing the current market trends in agriculture.”

The next step for Backer Farm is a public hearing in front of the Morris County Agricultural Development Board, to have its Site Specific Agricultural Management Practice application heard, said Frank Pinto, Backer Farm’s project manager and a spokesperson for the project.

Backer Farm has not been scheduled yet for the public hearing with the agricultural development board, Joe Barilla — the planning director of the Morris County Office of Planning and Preservation — told Patch in an email on Thursday.

Barilla said Backer Farm has not been scheduled for the Agricultural Development Board’s public hearing on Friday and information will be posted on the board’s website here, once the hearing is scheduled.

It will be the first time that the farm will be able to present its proposal and have its expert testimony heard, Pinto said in a news release on Thursday and phone interview with Patch on Friday.

He said the zoning board’s decision means breweries are a permitted use, as long as at least 51 percent of the ingredients to produce the craft beer come from the farm.

He said Backer Farm plans to grow barley, which will be sent to a malthouse for processing after it is dried at the farm, the malthouse then returning the barley to the farm.

Pinto said the plans for the property would not be considered a bar in any way and would not have the ability to serve food, with it seeking a Limited Brewery License. Under the state’s rules and a 2019 special ruling, the limited brewery licensees must follow strict guidelines, including limits on events, on the premises and off, according to the special ruling from the state.

Susan Rubright — attorney for the applicants requesting the interpretation request from Brach Eichler LLC — told Patch in an email statement on Friday that her clients filed the request with the Zoning Board of Adjustment to ask if creating a two-story, 78-seat brewery with a tasting room, was a permitted agricultural use in a residential neighborhood. The two dissenting board members had similar questions, she said.

Rubright said her clients had concerns about noise, overflow parking and the possibility of late hours. She said the township has taken a stance against destination farms and that Backer Farms had not notified neighbors of their development plans before submitting an application to the planning board over the summer of 2021.

She said at the current time, her clients have not appealed the decision, but have 45 days to do so after the Zoning Board adopts a memorializing resolution.

"We do not know if we will appeal," she said.

Pinto said neighbors have been invited to the farm to ask questions, COVID-19 additionally sidelining plans for a larger-scale event for neighbors to come to the farm. He said when Backer Farm appeared in front of the planning board on July 1, experts who planned to testify about the farm’s application, were not able to do so because of time constraints, with the Zoom meeting file corrupted from the meeting.

Rubright said Backer Farm has not met with a “large group of concerned residents.”

“If they did, they would learn that most people did not move to Mendham Township to live near an amusement-like destination farm,” Rubright said.

Rubright said that many neighbors do not have an objection to a limited-capacity tasting room, but called the farm’s plans something that “has the potential to destroy the very things that most people associate with Mendham — peace, quiet and traditional farming.”

She said the July 1 Planning Board meeting had over 100 participants on the call, many expressing health and safety concerns and she expects the same for the upcoming County Agricultural Development Board’s meeting, once it is scheduled.

“As members of the Mendham community for nearly 100 years, the Backer family has always cared deeply about the place we call home,” Backer said. “We’ve taken great care in all aspects of the application process for our farm-based brewery project, and we look forward to continuing to work closely with Mendham and Morris County to ensure our project reflects our multigenerational commitment to our community and neighbors.”

To view Backer Farm’s application on the county’s website, click here and here for the County Agriculture Development Board meeting agendas and schedule.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.