Shamong sod farm drops bid to host soccer tournaments - Burlington County Times

Mills Farms notified the township of the farm‘s decision in a Jan. 23 letter formally withdrawing its application for a site plan approval from the township’s Joint Land Use Board.

SHAMONG — Youth soccer tournaments will not be coming to this rural township.

A local sod farm’s proposal to host large tournaments was scuttled after the farm withdrew its application in response to vocal opposition from neighbors and other residents.

An attorney for Tuckerton Turf Farms, also known as Indian Mills Farms, notified the township of the farm‘s decision in a Jan. 23 letter formally withdrawing its application for site plan approval from the township’s Joint Land Use Board.

Residents packed a Jan. 21 board meeting to express opposition to the proposal, which called for the farm to partner with EDP Soccer, an East Brunswick-based company that specializes in organizing youth soccer leagues and tournaments.

The farm proposed hosting between 12 and 15 tournaments on its 168-acre parcel off Stokes Road, near Three Bridges Road on weekends during the spring, summer and fall in order to better market the farm’s sod. Residents panned the proposal as a “money grab” that would bring traffic and noise to the quiet community.

During the same meeting the board also ruled that soccer tournaments did not equate to farming activities even though the tournaments are intended to help the farm market and sell its crop. The ruling meant the farm would need to obtain a use variance for the events, which would have required a supermajority of the board to vote in favor of the proposal.

In the letter to the township, attorney Bill Harrison said the farm’s owner decided to drop the proposal “out of respect for the opinions of his neighbors.

“While Mr. Gardner regrets that he will not have the opportunity to demonstrate how the soccer tournaments would have benefited the sales of his turf without adversely impacting the neighborhood, it is more important to him to maintain good relations with his neighbors than to increase sales,” Harrison wrote in the letter, which was released by the township in response to an Open Public Records Act request.

It was not immediately clear if EDP would look for another farm in the area to host tournaments.

The company already holds numerous soccer tournaments on parts of the Tuckahoe Turf Farms, an 800-acre sod farm in Hammonton, Atlantic County, but was seeking a second location to supplement the Hammonton site.

An official from EDP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While the Shamong board ruled that soccer tournaments did not meet the town’s definition of permitted activities on farmland, the Burlington County Agriculture Development Board did provide an informal ruling that soccer is permitted on preserved farms.

A 2016 state law also specified that soccer and other field sports should be considered low-impact recreational activity on preserved farms in the Pinelands.