ASHFORD — Residents will have an opportunity to discuss proposed farming and solicitation rules at an in-person public hearing and special town meeting November 16, according to a notice posted by the town November 3.
The session is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the lower-level meeting room of the Ashford Town Office Building, 5 Town Hall Road. The notice calls for a public hearing on both proposals, followed by a special town meeting to consider their passage. The proposals have not been adopted in the records reviewed.
The proposed Right to Farm Ordinance would establish local protections against nuisance complaints involving qualifying agricultural activities. Its stated purpose includes supporting farming, agricultural economic opportunities and farmland while reducing conflicts with neighboring properties.
The draft lists odors, normal farm-equipment and livestock noise, cultivation dust, specified chemical use and certain water pollution among the activities addressed. Its protections are conditional on acceptable agricultural practices and other stated requirements; pollution of public or private drinking-water supplies is expressly excluded.
The farming proposal also excludes nuisances resulting from negligence or willful or reckless misconduct. It says it would not restrict the powers of the town’s planning and zoning or inland wetlands and watercourses commissions. The draft leaves its adoption and effective dates blank.
The separate Peddling and Soliciting proposal would replace the town’s existing ordinance, which the draft says was adopted in 1965 and amended in 2021. It would require a town permit for specified commercial selling and solicitation on public highways, sidewalks and public places, subject to listed exceptions.
For residential property, the draft would prohibit door-to-door solicitation, canvassing or sales without prior invitation or the owner’s or occupant’s consent, again with stated exceptions. Those include protected political and religious activity, official government and emergency work, qualifying registered charities, previously ordered deliveries and specified youth or school fundraising.
The proposed residential rules list authorized activity hours of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and prohibit door-to-door solicitation, canvassing or sales where No Soliciting or No Trespassing signs are posted. The draft provides a $199 municipal-infraction penalty per violation and treats each day or occurrence as a separate offense.
The town notice directs residents to the complete proposals on its website or in the Town Clerk’s Office. The solicitation draft says it would take effect after town-meeting approval and 15 days after newspaper publication; no actual adoption or effective date is established. Residents should review the complete texts for definitions, conditions and exceptions.
This AI-prepared report is based on the town’s November 3 notice, its scanned legal notice and both proposed ordinance texts. Eastern CT News has not obtained a meeting outcome or independently assessed the proposals’ legal validity. The accompanying archive photograph shows the meeting venue, not the upcoming hearing.