Planning commission reviews agritourism ordinance draft, seeks clearer thresholds for events and structures

Greene County planning commissioners on Aug. 20 completed a public work session to review proposed revisions to agritourism and farm-event regulations, aiming to clarify which activities may occur by right and which should require a special-use permit.

Staff presented a consolidated draft that combines farm wineries, breweries and limited distilleries into a single table of uses, and proposed tiered thresholds by parcel acreage, number of events, building footprint and attendance that would trigger a SUP and enable the Board of Supervisors to place conditions when impacts are likely. Staff emphasized that the county must follow state code on agritourism definitions and that conditions (hours, vegetation, restroom standards, parking, and noise limits) are available through the SUP process.

Commissioners debated several specifics: whether a 4,000-square-foot building footprint should be a by-right ceiling, whether larger footprints (for example up to 20,000 square feet) should be allowed only with a SUP, and how to account for topography and screening so a large building on a plateau may not have the same impacts as a smaller building on a ridge above neighbors.

They also discussed outdoor sound rules and event duration. Commissioners proposed clarifying that amplified outdoor music should be restricted for ceremonies or limited to a time window (for example 10 a.m.–10 p.m.) and considered adding a duration cap for amplified ceremonies (for example, two hours) while still allowing limited amplified speaking. The intent is to prevent all-day amplified events being treated the same as short ceremonies.

Members asked staff to spell out ranges the board would review for SUPs (for example, structure ranges tied to acreage), to move the definition that treats an event as 50 or more attendees into the body of the ordinance, and to make by-right thresholds and SUP thresholds easier for an outside investor to interpret. Commissioners discussed the need to preserve public input and board review for uses that exceed bona-fide agricultural production or function as corporate events.

Public commenters in the work session urged the commission to set upper limits on attendees and building space to preserve opportunities for public input on higher-impact uses. The commission agreed to revise the draft to reflect the discussion and to schedule another joint work session with the Board of Supervisors for further review before formal adoption.

Next steps: staff will incorporate the suggested edits, provide clearer ranges and definitions in the draft ordinance (including explicit building-footprint language and event-duration limits for amplified sound), and convene a joint session with the Board of Supervisors to solicit further direction prior to a public hearing on any final ordinance changes.