In our spotlight on Business Report.

Farmers in New Jersey were thrilled last year when Governor Murphy signed a law allowing them to host events on their farms like weddings.

Raising much needed revenue.

But farmers in Howell Township might face a whole new set of restrictions on those events if a new ordinance passes requiring them to pay for expensive permits.

Raven Santana visited a few of those farms to hear their concerns.

Or feed Bill here.

Every month it's just around $4,000.

Farrier could be about $800 to is another 12 to 1500 dollars.

It's been an expensive year for Stephanie Gluck.

She owns just under 14 acres of land on her farm, Magnolia, which rescues several different types of animals, including horses.

They really need a lot of care.

So when we get them initially, it does cost a lot of money.

Which is why she was excited to take advantage of a bill Governor Murphy signed last year that would allow farms to hold special events.

Under the bill, a preserved farm that produces agricultural or horticultural products for more than $10,000 annually.

May holds up to a maximum of 26 special occasion events per calendar year, of which six may have 250 guests or more in attendance.

So we're always looking for people to either sponsor a horse, host fundraisers to raise the money to help these horses.

She was hoping to use a farm to host large fundraisers.

But she says that changed when Howell Township proposed an ordinance that would regulate special events on farms.

The township's proposal would require events with more than 30 people to obtain a potentially costly site plan, approval for detailed parking, stormwater runoff and food handling measures.

What keeps me up at night is God forbid that there's an accident on a farm or an event that I approved.

Matthew Howard is the director of Community Development and Land News for Howell Township.

Howard says the process has been tedious as they have to take into account all parties involved.

Municipal land use law tasks us, the township with certain things.

There's competing interests.

For example, there are businesses that are doing this activity that have gone through the approval process.

We want to be fair to them as well.

There's also paramount, first and foremost is health and safety.

Again, farms are never built to be a banquet hall.

We want to make sure as the public is going to this property where maybe they never have before.

There's things like ingress and egress.

The utilities are worked out, the facilities where the bathrooms are, where the food is coming from.

We want to make sure it's safe for the property owner, for the people visiting the site.

And then we also have a responsibility to all the taxpayers of Howell Township.

Stop all these permit fees.

It's extremely expensive.

Gluck sentiments echo the struggles of sisters Juliana or Dunja and Norma Alcaraz.

The two co-own the Garden gift Shop located on this 14 acre farm in Howell Township, where they produce honey flowers and vegetables.

We don't have a mortgage, but we do have taxes.

And, you know, we have all the utility bills.

And I just, you know, all the supplies that we need to, you know, to fill our jar.

And so it was it was it was a struggle.

We did calls, but we were doing like pickups online.

Roadside pickups.

Yeah, We did a.

Couple of deliveries for our elderly customers because they were afraid to leave their home.

They bought the farm five years ago, but when COVID hit, they say they were forced to pivot to stay afloat and have been struggling ever since.

They're now concerned the new restrictions could impact their livelihood.

The sisters say they have been hosting 20 to 25 vendors for events, sometimes bringing in 500 people to.

Have a big barn and to bring in 30 people.

It just.

MONTO members of the Farmers Advisory Committee argue that farmers have been left out of the process and stressed why their suggestions are important.

Farmers are normally just fending for themselves.

They don't have the time or the even the understanding of, you know, where they should start when they have to deal with the township, with legislation, with Trenton.

Howard says the council is working tirelessly to make sure the proposal is fair to everyone.

He expects by late April or early May the ordinance will be introduced and the town will hold a public meeting.

He says he's now optimistic it will be approved by the end of May.

Friendly Spotlight News.

I'm Raven Santana.