A Canterbury farm has been sent a cease and desist letter to stop holding movie nights after not appearing for meetings with town officials last month.
The letter, dated June 8, indicates that a representative from Brookford Farm failed to respond to correspondence about a site plan review with the Canterbury Planning Board and also did not appear for a scheduled discussion with the select board Monday.
The issue at hand was a series of movie nights Brookford Farm advertised it would be holding this summer. May 10 planning board meeting minutes indicate the board didn’t consider movies as “part of a farm environment” and noted it would be a change to the farm’s approved site plan.
The minutes say the planning board reached out to Pat Gale, a Brookford Farm representative, and also referred the matter to the select board.
Town Administrator Ken Folsom said this week that Gale didn’t come for the June 6 meeting he was scheduled to speak at.
“We put him on the agenda and they didn’t show up,” Folsom said. He added that the planning board also did not hear back.
“At this point,” Folsom said, “we’ve sent them a cease and desist letter.”
A copy of the letter informs the farm that if they proceed with the movie nights, they will be in violation of zoning without prior approval from the planning board and select board. A fine of $275 would be imposed for each day the violation continued after June 8.
In an email Thursday, Brookford Farm co-owner Luke Mahoney said there would be no movie nights this summer.
“We’re too busy farming to deal with jumping through hoops,” he wrote. “We have no animosity towards anyone about this. We will plan better next time.”
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @elodie_reed.)