David Fehr, Butler County director of development, said the zoning violation has “nothing to do” with the farming of the property or the crops.
“It strictly has to do with that building,” Fehr said.
Because of this, owner Michael Garver has filed an appeal, saying his farm market does meet agricultural standards because more than 50 percent of his gross sales are from agricultural products.
A 2002 Ohio Attorney General opinion stated farm markets carrying other goods or providing other services are exempt from township zoning regulations if 50 percent or more of gross income is from “produce raised on farms owned or operated by the market operator in a normal crop year.”
Butler County’s Rural Zoning Resolution, though, has language for roadside stands, defined as “temporary” structures used for sale of “only agricultural products produced on the premises.”
This resolution, effective from December 2022, applies to Lemon Twp. Fehr said the building at 6790 Hamilton Lebanon Road “went beyond” a roadside farm stand.
“We saw they had a deli counter, a commercial kitchen and coffee shop,” he said. “Our violation has to do with it going beyond what a typical farm stand or farm market might be.”
Garver is a fourth-generation farmer — his daughter, Alayna, being the fifth. The farm itself is almost 100 years old, and the owners farm 1,250 acres of land in three counties. Most is leased from other land owners, though the Garver family owns and farms 178 acres.
The Garver family began the farm market in 1991 with a 650-square-foot open-air building. At the time, it sold exclusively unprocessed, agricultural products
Over the years, Garver has had to adapt to the changing landscape of farming to keep income steady.
“If you don’t make those changes, you’re going to fall to the wayside,” he said.
Because of this, the Garvers decide to expand, culminating in the farm market building at 6790 Hamilton Lebanon Road, which they started planning for in 2020.
Credit: Bryn Dippold
Credit: Bryn Dippold
Another aspect of the violation has to do with a lack of plans submitted for 6790 Hamilton-Lebanon Road prior to construction of the market building, which opened in May 2024.
Fehr’s office did receive plans April 18, 2022 for an address nearby, on Carson Road.
These plans, reviewed by Journal-News, are visually similar to the building at 6790 Hamilton Lebanon Road but were for a wedding venue, farm market, deli, bakery and winery at 7145 Carson Road.
Garver said he took these plans to the county in 2022, which received a zoning exemption.
“I wanted to be transparent and work with the county,” he said.
This original building was designed to be twice the size of the current building on Hamilton Lebanon Road, but the Carson Road plan was determined not to be viable due to its cost and size.
Garver said his contractor brought updated plans to the county for 6790 Hamilton Lebanon Road in March 2023.
A Butler County employee, who Garver said is no longer working with the county, gave the contractor the go ahead, according to Garver. But the county does not have a record of this updated plan being submitted in March 2023. Garver also does not have record of the plan being submitted.
Building and zoning plans for 6790 Hamilton Lebanon Road were submitted Oct. 7 of this year, according to Fehr.
To come into compliance, Fehr said there are two options: the first is to file an appeal to the Butler County Board of Zoning Appeals, which Garver has done.
“We’re going to argue our case that we are a winery and that we are a farm market and that we are into agricultural education,” Garver said. The hope is to keep the farm market’s agricultural zoning.
If the appeal is not granted, Garver is not sure what happens next.
“I’m trying to keep my head up and work with the county ... they’re just doing their job,” Garver said.
The Garver family could also ask for a zoning variance, where an exception can be made due to a “hardship situation or something unusual with the property” or update the building to meet commercial zoning standards, which could include a costly fire suppression system.
The Butler County Auditor’s Office also confirmed a letter was sent to Garver regarding the market’s current agricultural use value, or CAUV, status for six acres of land at 6790 Hamilton Lebanon Road, the piece of property where the market building was built.
CAUV status allows qualifying farmland to be taxed based on its value for agricultural production rather than its potential market value, meaning a farmer pays less property taxes.
The letter states the reason for the removal of CAUV status was because “an initial or renewal application was not filed.”
The actual reason for the change to those six acres only is due to the new commercial building, according to Butler County officials.
Because of this status change, the land will now be assessed as its fair market value and the Garvers owe $4,570.93 in back taxes, which represents total savings received on its land over the past three tax years, according to the letter.
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