By ZOË HAGGARD - zhaggard@t-g.com
Chris and Stephanie Sarsfield bought just over 20 acres of land a few years ago on Webb Road with the dream of opening a pick-your-own flower farm and small, quaint, wedding venue.
In Christiana, they had a narrow 6 acres of land populated by 33 fruit trees. They occasionally hosted friends and families for pictures but were limited by flooding and lack of parking space, they advised.
Chris said recently that they bought their Bell Buckle land in 2016 by “accident.” But the quiet, peaceful land seemed like the perfect place for a wedding venue.
“We moved here with the intent to start a venue . . . had always intended to plant the trees,” Chris said. Today, they have close to 175 trees, 700 blackberry bushes and seven acres of wildflowers at Lynfield Gardens.
“We always wanted to do agriculture, but we didn’t know there was an intersection between agriculture and ‘accessory use.’”
That term “accessory use” gave their opposition, they said, a leg up.
When they attended a zoning meeting in November of 2016, to apply for an exemption to build a “special events venue,” they said they were met with at least 12 people in opposition to their plans.
“It was shocking,” Stephanie said.
The Sarsfields’ neighbors, Joe and Jenny Hunt and Virginia Stewart, were at the helm, they said, coining the phrase on Facebook posts “Say No To The Party Barn.”
“We never wanted to be a large venue that hosts weddings twice a week. It’s not even practical, between the two of us,” said Stephanie. “It’s so quiet out here, we don’t want to ruin that.”
Bell Buckle mayor until 2017, Hunt hired Theodore Goodman, from Murfree and Goodman law offices in Murfreesboro to represent them and the Town of Bell Buckle.
Current Bell Buckle Mayor Ronnie Lokey said, “That was outside the city and between two individuals. The town really didn’t have a position on that or shouldn’t. So, we got removed from the lawsuit [around 2018.]”
“Why she pulled the town into it, I don’t know,” Lokey said.
Even though the Sarsfields’ property is adjacent to Bell Buckle’s city limits, it is also inside Bell Buckle’s urban growth boundary (UGB.) There were several concerns Goodman brought up in a letter to the chairman of the Bedford County Board of Zoning Appeals in June 2017.
The term “special events venue” was not specifically permitted by right and was not listed as one that is specifically permitted in the zoning code, Goodman wrote in his letter.
He continued to explain that because weddings are typically invite only, the proposed use would not be one “generally open to the public” and therefore fails to meet the definition of “public recreational facility.” Nor is the proposed wedding venue “necessary for the public convenience,” Goodman wrote.
However, Stephanie said, “I can understand their fears because I have the same fears. I don’t want 500 people on our property at one time. That’s why everything we do, we do by ticket.”
She added that they would not allow alcohol on their property and that music would be off by 10 p.m. and the property cleared off.
Also, Goodman argued the proposed restroom facility is within 25 feet of what Goodman referred to in his letter as “the Hunts’” property. So, as he writes, the field line would “endure hundreds of toilet flushes over a short period of time.” Failure of the septic tank would cause a health hazard, especially to “the Hunts.”
The wedding venue would also inflict large influxes of traffic onto Webb Highway as well as “impaired drivers, light pollution, noise pollution...and unpleasant odors.”
Mayor Lokey said, “But who’s to say for sure if it would’ve created all that much traffic or noise. We bring craft fairs in here and back up traffic to [Highway] 231, so are we doing the very same thing?”
The Sarsfields’ existing driveway is “further inadequate because it stops well-short of the proposed ‘grass parking spaces’ and appears to be insufficient to provide emergency vehicles with access.”
With all this said, the proposed Sarsfield wedding venue is “incompatible with the adjoining properties,” according to Goodman.
In November 2018, the Hunts filed a nuisance suit. Then, in February 2019, Stewart filed a suit concerning use of a shared driveway with the Sarsfields.
The Sarsfields said they spent nearly $30,000 on improvements to their property, including a new gravel driveway entrance. The couple note that they do have a right to use the driveway.
Lawsuit is in landlock
Today, the lawsuit is in a landlock. “It will be almost 3 years since we’ve been to court,” said Stephanie.
Last time, the judge asked them to get proof that they are a farm. They did, through the Bedford County Zoning Board, they advised.
Stephanie said “the Hunts” then appealed that zoning decision. “But before we could get a court date, they sued the county,” said Stephanie.
She further explained that the acting county attorney, Ginger Shofner, has not filed a response to the lawsuit against the county zoning. Shofner recently told the Times-Gazette that the county is not involved in the main litigation of the case, but they are working on a date for a future hearing.
For now, the Sarsfields are operating under the “Right to Farm” Act, which they began to learn about at the second zoning hearing. “The state definition of farming is broad,” said Stephanie. “Most people around here think if you’re not doing row crops and raising cattle, you’re just a hobby farm.”
They say instead of being a “wedding venue,” they would like to be a farm that hosts weddings.
“We are a farm with the ability to host weddings as an accessory use, not as initially when we wanted to do weddings. And that was the confusion on how to operate,” said Chris.
In 2019, Bedford updated its zoning ordinance to comply with the state’s Right to Farm Act, which now includes weddings as a use on the farm.
Lokey added, “If they purchased property, they should be able to do anything they want to with it, within limits. Hurt somebody else . . . where it becomes a problem. It very well could’ve created more noise and traffic but that was between the Hunts and the Sarsfield. The town really doesn’t have a position on it. The town wants their citizens to have a peaceable place to live and everything for sure, to keep it a quite community.”
The Sarsfields say their goal all along was to work with the town. Stephanie says they have people come every week to pick flowers, and that many who come to Lynfield go to the Bell Buckle Café and shop in the downtown area.
“It brings out so many people . . . .They come out and they’re speechless. When we see it in someone else’s perspective, it’s like, we’re doing something right,” she said. “So many people say this is a little piece of heaven. And that’s what we want to maintain.”
“It’s fulfilling,” said Chris. “We provide an opportunity for people, especially once they get here, they’re like, we never knew this was here. I stand out on the porch sometime and all I can say is thank you, God, for this land.’”
