Assembly Commerce, Economic Development and Agriculture Committee Statement to Assembly, No. 4556 (2024)

Summary

An Assembly Commerce, Economic Development and Agriculture Committee statement to Assembly, No. 4556, State of New Jersey, dated December 16, 2024, reporting the bill favorably with committee amendments. The bill would amend P.L.2023, c.9, which authorizes limited special occasion events on preserved farms, to clarify when recently constructed permanent structures may be used for those events. Existing law bars using permanent structures built within the five-year period before the application. The bill would allow their use if the structure is used by a winery primarily for the testing, sale, consumption or marketing of wine or farm-related products, or if special occasion event revenues will not exceed 10 percent of the farm's total revenues for the calendar year.

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ASSEMBLY COMMERCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND AGRICULTURE
COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY,
No. 4556

with
committee amendments

STATE
OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: DECEMBER
16, 2024

The Assembly Commerce, Economic Development and
Agriculture Committee reports favorably, and with committee amendments,
Assembly Bill No. 4556.

As
amended by the committee, this bill would amend the law at P.L.2023, c.9 (C.4:1C-32.15
et seq.), which authorizes the holding of certain limited special occasion
events on preserved farms, in order to clarify the circumstances under which
certain recently constructed or erected permanent structures may be used for
such special occasion events.

While existing law authorizes special occasion events
to be held on a preserved farm, provided that the farm owner or operator first
(and annually) applies to, and receives approval therefor from, the State,
local, or nonprofit entity to which the farm’s development rights have been
conveyed (the grantee), the existing law also prohibits a farm owner or
operator from using any permanent structures on the farm, for the holding of
grantee-approved special occasion events, if those structures have been
recently constructed within the five-year period preceding the date on which
the special occasion events application is submitted. This bill would
establish a limited exception to this general prohibition by authorizing a
preserved farm owner or operator to use these types of recently constructed permanent
structures, for special occasion events that are approved to be held on the
preserved farm, as long as either: 1) such permanent structure is used by a
winery, as defined by the existing special occasion events law, in accordance
with the State’s Right to Farm Act, for the primary purpose of facilitating the
testing, sale, consumption, or marketing of wine, wine-related products, or
farm-related products; or 2) the total revenues to be received from all special
occasion events held on the farm, during the calendar year, will not exceed 10
percent of the total revenues accruing to the farm in that calendar year. A
farm owner or operator who wishes to use such recently constructed permanent
structures for special occasion event purposes, would be required, in the
special occasion events application which is submitted to the grantee pursuant
to existing law, to certify and provide supporting documentation demonstrating
satisfaction of either of the bill’s purpose and use or revenue requirements,
as necessary to justify the applicant’s use of the permanent structure for
special occasion event purposes, and the grantee would be required to confirm,
in its written notice approving of such application, whether the applicant has
provided satisfactory evidence of compliance with the bill’s primary purpose
and use requirements or revenue requirements, in this regard, and is being
authorized and approved by the grantee, on such basis, to use recently
constructed permanent structures for the purposes of holding the special
occasion events identified in the application.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS :

The committee amended the bill to:

(1) permit farm owners to use recently constructed
permanent structures for special occasion events that are approved to be held
on the preserved farm, as long as either: a) such permanent structure is used
by a winery for the primary purpose of facilitating the testing, sale,
consumption, or marketing of wine, wine-related products, or farm-related
products; or b) the total revenues to be received from all special occasion
events held on the farm, during the calendar year, will not exceed 10 percent
of the total revenues accruing to the farm in that calendar year;

(2) require farm owners to certify and provide
supporting documentation in the special occasion events application demonstrating
satisfaction of either of the bill’s purpose and use or revenue requirements;
and

(3) require the special occasion events application grantee
to confirm whether the applicant has provided satisfactory evidence of
compliance with the bill’s primary purpose and use requirements or revenue
requirements.

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