Maple View neighbors urge county to tighten agritourism rules after large event in rural buffer

Residents of the Maple View community and nearby Bingham Township used the public-remarks portion of the June 3 Orange County commissioners meeting to press the county to tighten the agritourism statute'as applied to farm-exempt properties.

Susan Walzer, who said the group held a recent meeting with an estimated 300 attendees, told commissioners she and her neighbors are seeing what they describe as "bona fide farm ex farm exempt land owners abusing the agritourism statute to advance their goals for large commercial business enterprises" in areas the speakers said were never intended for commercial-scale events. Walzer and others specifically cited a recent event with roughly 2,500 people and asked how an amphitheater with that capacity could operate safely on rural roads and in the county's rural buffer where…