Proposal to Allow Overnight Stays on Farms Triggers Major Concerns
Updated April 6, 2024
Montgomery County Council member Natali Fani-Gonzalez (District 6) last fall proposed a zoning change to allow farmers and landowners in the Ag Reserve to construct dwellings for overnight lodging.
An outpouring of concern and outright opposition ensued. At a December 6, 2023 public forum on the proposal—sponsored by SCA and Montgomery Countryside Alliance (MCA)—the majority of some 75 attendees questioned the rationale, scope, and potential impact of the measure. The general sentiment was that the proposal would undermine farming and the basic tenets of the Ag Reserve—which seek to preserve and foster farming and prevent commercial and non-farm related development on arable farmland. It could also lead to a land grab by developers, and increases in land costs that would price farmers out of the market, many residents said.
The majority of about 60 people testifying at a January 16 public hearing on the proposal—sponsored by the County Council—voiced similar objections. On major one: Ms. Gonzalez had not consulted with her colleagues on the Council who represent the Ag Reserve (Marilyn Balcombe and Dawn Luedtke) nor had she spoken with key Ag Reserve stakeholders including farm groups, farmers and landowners.
Technical objections to the measure—formally called a zoning text amendment, or ZTA (23-09)—were also aired. That included the proposal’s startling scope and scale. It would allow up to 10 permanent structures (cabins or yurts) housing up to 20 adults for 4 days at a time.
Sounds benign if it were a scout troupe or school outing but not so much if it were an engagement party at a farm that had a brewery.
The onslaught of critiques led Ms. Gonzalez to quickly propose changes to her measure, and announce she was open to even further amendments. When that failed to quell widespread concern, she asked that consideration of the measure by the Council be postponed until this summer. Since February, Ms. Gonzalez has continued to seek support for the proposal. Her main selling point: expanded agritourism, including overnight stays, is needed to make farms in the Ag Reserve more financially viable now and in the future. To date, she has provided no data to back up that assertion.
SCA’s position and what we’re doing
SCA is opposed to Ms. Gonzalez’s proposal. It is overly broad, poorly justified, and sets a bad precedent. It is also technically flawed on several counts. The main flaw is that the proposal would, in effect, change the definition of farming in the county to include overnight lodging. The unacceptable upshot of that means that a landowner or farmer could take acreage out of active agricultural use and instead use the same land for lodging and related facilities—and still call what they are doing on that land “farming.”
The proposal is simply too big a change to Ag Reserve existing (and long established) zoning and policy to move forward without a much better understanding of the interest of farmers and the impact. Our preference was for the ZTA to be pulled from consideration altogether. Instead, we suggested that County officials support, over the next year or so, a close examination of the issue in the context of emerging agritourism trends statewide and in Montgomery county.
That’s not what happened. Ms. Gonzalez has declined to pull her ZTA and has proclaimed it to be her “number one priority.” Procedure and politics on the Council appear set for the ZTA to be considered this summer.
SCA has joined with MCA and two farm groups—Montgomery Agricultural Producers and the Maryland Farm Bureau’s Montgomery County chapter—to oppose the ZTA. Other local farm and civic groups are also engaged in this fight on their own. There is emerging coordination among all of us. And all of us are communicating with our Ag Reserve representatives on the Council.
Strategies and ideas are taking shape. Discussions include what options for “incidental overnight stays” at farms might be more acceptable than Ms. Gonzalez’s notion of permanent structures. For example, camping, the need for more established campsites in the Ag Reserve, and lowered barriers to farm-based Airbnbs? Should farmers be more actively encouraged to participate in Hipcamp, for example? (See “Addendum” below.)
Broadly speaking, SCA supports agritourism, a term that refers to farms that engage in non-farm activities accessory to a farm’s core agricultural business. Such activities include: (a) educating the public and nurturing an understanding of farming practices; (b) providing a hands-on farm experience to non-farmers; and (c) allowing consumers to pick, sample and buy a farm’s produce and products onsite.
These activities can be a major source of a farm’s income or, at a smaller scale, just supplement it. Montgomery County has a long history of agritourism, and there are a dozen or more large and prominent farms in the Ag Reserve that function primarily as places where people shop for fresh, locally grown food or beverages— amid other activities, such as hay rides or just hanging out.
What remains very unclear is whether there is any interest in (from landowners and farmers) or demand (from consumers) for staying overnight at those or similar establishments rather than at nearby established lodging—whether that be a motel, hotel, campground, RV park, Inn, B&B or Airbnb.
Ms. Gonzalez’s proposal
It adds “incidental outdoor stays” to the list of activities a farm may offer. The term is directly adapted from the language of a provision approved by the Maryland legislature in May 2022. That provision permits counties to propose their own programs for overnight stays at farms. Notably, the state law does not mention permanent or semi-permanent structures to accommodate overnights.
Ms. Gonzalez proposes overnight stays in “structures” that are “separate from the primary residence.” The structures would be permitted to have indoor plumbing and bathrooms, and thus would require a water source and septic systems. The proposal further sets these standards:
• No cooking facilities in the same structure as sleeping quarters
• A maximum of 10 structures
• A maximum occupancy per structure of 2 persons 18 years or older (plus however many children accompany them)
• A maximum stay of 4 nights
Again, since January, Ms. Gonzalez has signaled she is open to changes.
Among the many issues that have been raised:
• What is the definition of “outdoor?”
• What is the definition of “structure?”
• How big could the constructed units be?
• Is there a minimum size farm that would be permitted to have overnight guests in structures?
• How will the proposal affect farmland costs, already a barrier to new and expanding producers?
• What are the well and septic implications?
• How would farms with agricultural easements be affected?
In a preamble to the ZTA, Ms. Gonzalez claims that the county’s agritourism sector is “growing and thriving.” We concur, but again are unaware of any evidence or data to suggest that Ag Reserve farmers want to “thrive” through agritourism that involves overnight stays.
She also asserts that people who come to the Ag Reserve “must leave, even if they’d rather stay because there is no place for them to stay for miles and miles.” In fact, no location or farm in the Ag Reserve is more than 15 to 20 miles from a town or highway that has lodging (including B&Bs and Airbnbs) and access to restaurants and shopping.
ADDENDUM
The most often-cited example of agritourism nationwide is a vineyard. Many vineyards and wineries—nationally and in our area—allow visitors to see how grapes are cultivated and how wine is made, sample the products on site while socializing, and buy wine to take home. Farms that grow the raw ingredients for beer (grain, barley, hops) operate on much the same model, with on-site breweries.
Home to approximately 400 wineries, Napa and Sonoma counties in California have the highest concentration of vineyards in the country. Some large wineries in this region offer overnight accommodations, but the vast majority do not. Visitors more commonly stay at hotels, motels, B&Bs and Airbnbs in nearby towns. The same trend exists in other areas of the U.S. where wineries and breweries operate.
Accurate national data on overnight lodging on working farms (of any kind) is not available. And while articles and commentary found on the internet suggests that both agritourism and overnight farm stays are on the rise, there’s no clarity on the magnitude of the growth and what form overnight stays take—camping, glamping, RVs, B&Bs, Airbnbs, etc. Airbnb data cited in a Vox article in 2019 indicates that just under 944,000 people stayed for 745,000 nights at farms listed on Airbnb between February 2018 and February 2019.
Two organizations are at the forefront of the farm-stay movement nationwide. They are Hipcamp and Harvest Hosts.
Founded in 2013, Hipcamp is international and has been dubbed the Airbnb of overnight stays at farms and vineyards. But Hipcamp listings also cover stays at ranches, nature preserves, and public campgrounds. As the company’s name suggests, hipcampers sleep in tents or under tarps.
Hipcamp’s website does not breakdown the number of campers at their sites except to say: “tens of thousands of landowners have opened their gates to… Hipcampers, who have spent more than 10 million nights under the stars,” in public parks around the world and on “5 million acres of beautiful private land.” Noteworthy: the Maryland Farm Bureau recently partnered with Hipcamp to draw attention to the company’s hundreds of Maryland offerings.
Harvest Hosts, by contrast, aims at the RV and tow-behind trailer crowd. It specifically excludes tent camping. A $99 annual fee gets you access to a network of 1,885 wineries, breweries, distilleries, farms, and other tourist sites that offer a total of just under 5,000 parking sites in the U.S. and Canada. RVs or trailers must have a toilet, water tank, cooking facilities, and their own power. No electric hook ups or bathing facilities are provided, such as one would find at a commercial RV facility.