NORWICH — Voters will be asked to approve tax-exempt status for property owned by the Norwich Farm Foundation during Tuesday’s Town Meeting ballot voting.

The 6.2-acre parcel on Turnpike Road is valued at more than $1 million and is home to Norwich Farm Creamery.

The land was purchased from Vermont Technical College by the nonprofit Norwich Farm Foundation in a high-profile sale in 2021. Currently, the farm does not have any dairy cows. The creamery trucks in milk from Billings Farm in Woodstock and either bottles it under the Norwich Farm label or processes it into products such as ricotta cheese and ice cream.

There are two paths to seeking a property tax exemption: through approval by the listers or through a town vote.

Article 13 on this year’s warning puts the decision into the hands of residents.

The listers were poised to deny Norwich Farm’s request for an exemption during a meeting at the beginning of February, primarily on the grounds that the creamery operating on the property is a for-profit enterprise.

“Having nonprofit status is one piece, but showing that it’s operating on a nonprofit basis is another,” Cheryl Lindberg, chairwoman of the Board of Listers, said at the time.

Chris Gray, co-owner of the Norwich Farm Creamery, present at the meeting with Omer Trajman, a member of the board at Norwich Farm Foundation, rescinded the application so that it could be amended to meet the statutory requirements.

While the listers’ decision was based on statutory compliance, voters can apply their own criteria in the voting booth. But the terms of the exemption are different depending on how it is granted. Exemption through the listers also exempts a property from the school tax. An exemption through the ballot does not.

“I think most people don’t realize that if you vote to exempt, we all still have to pay the school tax,” lister Pam Smith said at the meeting.

The foundation’s portion of the school tax burden would be among the town’s other property tax payers.

Trajman contends the property is of sufficient service to the town to warrant an exemption.

“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is figure out a model and then provide education and long-term donations to spread out this model of how do we keep local farms, especially dairy farms,” Trajman said in an interview with the Valley News.

The property previously was tax-exempt when it was held by The Sigler Foundation, which also operated the land, then known as the Dream & Do Farm, for educational purposes. Initially, the town denied Sigler’s exemption request, but legal action took the matter to the Vermont Supreme Court, which decided the property did qualify under statute for tax exemption.

“It’s now sitting with the listers; we gave them additional information, but the voters have the right to make that decision on their own,” Trajman said.

The Sigler Foundation’s victory in court gives Trajman hope, but some residents aren’t sold on the premise that the same should apply to the Norwich Farm Foundation.

The Norwich Listserv has been awash with chatter about the possible exemption, with most posts opposed to the request.

Much of the criticism has focused on the for-profit status of the creamery, as well as the lease agreement between the Foundation and Gray, which rents him a house on the property for $500, a massive discount in the Upper Valley rental market.

“It is a big ask of taxpayers to exempt property having a value of over $1 million,” Norwich resident Chris Katucki wrote in an email to the Valley News. “Although I applaud the Foundation’s goals, they are aspirational regarding dairy farming at the Norwich Farm property. The statute requires the property to be ‘used exclusively’ for the charitable purposes of the nonprofit. I don’t see how renting the property to a for-profit creamery at a below-market rent constitutes a charitable purpose.”

Katucki also is waiting for the Norwich Farm Foundation to come through on its promise to bring cows back to the farm’s empty pens.

Frances Mize is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at fmize@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.

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