This couple retired to the Jersey Shore to open the ‘Ocean City Winery.’ What could go wrong?

UPPER TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Mike and Robin Halpern had a vision for retirement. Robin knew her way around a vineyard. Mike could run a business. They bought a Christmas tree farm in Cape May County, met the neighbors, transitioned from trees to grapes.

Two miles as the drone flies from Ocean City, the former Trop’s Tree Farm on Bayaire Road would be rechristened the “Ocean City Winery,” with vineyards and an 80-seat tasting room, which would surely turn some heads — and cars — off the Garden State Parkway. The actual Ocean City is a dry town.

They took steps to designate the 5-acre property a commercial farm under New Jersey Right to Farm laws. It was already preserved land, continuously farmed since 1970, with development rights sold to the county by the former owner for $216,132 in 2005.

Three years ago, the Halperns moved from Collingswood to live full-time on the farm near Beesley’s Point they had purchased in 2005 for $333,000. They built a pole barn.

“I know this sounds like one of those nice retirement stories,” said Mike Halpern, 65, who ran a consulting firm for years. “But it isn’t.”

“We assumed he was a retired, gentleman-farmer type of thing,” is how Brian Edwards, owner of the Bashful Banana Bakery & Cafe in Ocean City, put it the other day. He is one of about two dozen neighbors opposing the Halperns. “Just going to bottle some wine.”

The Halperns say their intentions were always known. They already were growing grapes on a preserved farm in Cumberland County in an enterprise that Mike, a former Collingswood volunteer firefighter, called Engine One Vineyards.

They continued to run the tree farm at first, but talked about a future of grapes and wine, and an 80-seat tasting room, on the 5.27-acre property off Route 9 that runs in part along the back property lines of neighbors.

“It was always our very public intention to open a small winery and tasting room, and we completed our commercial pole barn, complete with the required inspections and certificate of occupancy, in 2018,” Halpern wrote in an email with the subject “Upper Township Farming Issues.”

Still, some neighbors grew wary, while others continued to appreciate the view of vineyards from their decks. There was alarm when Halpern appeared in the vineyards bordering their backyards in full protective haz-mat gear, spraying pesticides, including the chemical paraquat, down the rows of cuyahoga and vidal (white) and cabernet sauvignon and chambourcin (red) grape vines.

Halpern says he’s required to suit up, always notifies the neighbors, and says the amount of pesticides he’s using is within allowable limits.

But neighbors are unconvinced. “I have to get everyone inside, close the windows, turn on the air-conditioning, get the kids out of the backyard,” says John Guregiel. “He impedes on my freedom to live my life.”

Out at the farm the other day, an irregularly shaped plot of land that runs from Route 9 nearly to the Garden State Parkway, including behind several neighbors’ backyards, Halpern continued to make the case for his winery. He’s keeping a walking path through the property for the neighbors on three sides.

He’s exasperated that it’s run into so much opposition, with everyone lawyered up, including the township.

He turned the conversation back to the vineyards themselves, which were undergoing winter pruning. He says they will produce 6-7 tons of grapes a year, which will yield as much as 5,000 bottles of wine.

“These are gorgeous grapes,” he said.

With his own winery unlikely for this season, he will sell the harvest to other South Jersey wineries. “New Jersey fruit is worth an awful lot of money,” he said.

The Halperns think the neighbors’ concerns are exaggerated, and point out that they have tried to address the fears by revising and scaling down their overall plans.

Because the county designated the land a commercial farm, the site-specific plan is now before the county Agricultural Board for approval, a process that irks neighbors as it would supersede any township zoning or planning laws. It’s unclear when the board will consider the application.

With the revisions, the winery would only be open during the day, with the longest hours from May to September, between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. There would be no outdoor music or sound amplification. The Halperns switched the entrance from Bayaire Road to Route 9, promised additional buffer plantings, and said all other access would be closed off to discourage parking on neighborhood streets.

They agreed they would not do weddings, festivals, or private bookings of the farm, and would not apply to change any of these restrictions for at least three years from opening. They stressed that state agriculture laws allow for “on-farm direct marketing,” like a farm stand but also a winery and agriculture-related education activities that include wine tastings and wine-pairing seminars.

They said they doubted the winery would frequently attract a capacity crowd. “Who’d give up a good beach day to go to a winery?” asked Robin Halpern, a retired nurse.

Under their plan, the Halperns’ pole barn would be transformed into the tasting room and wine production facility, which would process grapes from his larger vineyard in Cumberland County.

The Halperns believe like they’ve followed the law, made numerous concessions. and still are being opposed for what they, and others, believe would be an amenity to a town and a pastoral backdrop.

Neighbor T.J. Laury, who has a plumbing and electric business in Ocean City, says he and his wife moved in knowing the winery plans. They are staying clear of the dispute, but he says, “I understand it. People don’t want people drinking in the neighborhood.” The vineyards themselves, he says, are “pretty to look at.”

Just up Route 9 is the Tuckahoe Inn, now at a dead end where the old Route 9 bridge used to be, and the sprawling site of the former B.L. England Generating Plant, recently sold to developers who envision a hotel, retail, restaurant, and marina, once a $13 million cleanup is complete.

Neighbors say Route 9 is already filled with traffic in the summer, and they can feel the push of skyrocketing real estate prices and summer tourists from the booming barrier islands. They envision a lot of parking and turning around in their cul-de-sac by GPS-following winery seekers.

Joe Falls, a neighbor on Bayaire Road, predicted “more people coming to this neighborhood” in his comments to the Upper Township Committee at a Nov. 22 meeting. ”Definitely with Pennsylvania people,” he said, to laughter. “You know who occupies Ocean City. You know what happens.”

Other neighbors feared an “entertainment facility” or rowdy drinking establishment masquerading as a genteel winery. They all miss the tree farm.

“The tree farm was idyllic,” neighbor Karolann Kemenosh told the Upper Township Committee in that November meeting, which featured nearly an hour of complaints by neighbors. “It was absolutely magical to be next to a tree farm.”

Even with the revisions, the winery plan feels less than ideal to these neighbors in this community of modest homes.One house is already converting to an Airbnb. They mostly don’t notice the noise from the Parkway.

They hired an attorney, Richard King, to navigate the complicated laws that govern such a property and give the county’s Agriculture Development Board oversight, and not the town’s zoning or planning board.

The neighbors are challenging whether the farm actually is comprised of 5 acres and say it should not qualify as a working farm. They argue there are insufficient setbacks and buffers, that the site is inadequate for the proposed winery, and it violates local zoning laws.

“To allow a tree farm to transform into a winery would jeopardize the health and safety of the residents, and is too great a deviation from the zoning law and master plan of the township,” their complaints reads.

Upper Township rejected the Halperns’ application to have the township designate the property as farmland for assessment and taxation purposes under the Farmland Assessment Act of 1964. It has hired its own attorney, Frank Corrado, who noted the township also objects to the winery plan.

But Colin Bell, the Halperns’ attorney, says the Ocean City Winery (a name the Halperns say they are willing to do without) is just the kind of small farm operation envisioned by the state, if not by the neighbors.

“I think the impact will be far less than what people think it is,” said Bell, who previously won the right of Willow Creek Winery to open over the objections of West Cape May. “If you have a house overlooking a vineyard and winery, it probably helps your values, not hurts them.”

He said the proposed winery was unlikely to result in the “raucous crowd” of Shore partyers feared by neighbors.

“People might take a glass of wine and take a walk through the grapes, yes,” Bell said. “That’s what they want you to do. That’s what the state of New Jersey has said is good agricultural management practice.”