Help Chamberlain Acres Fund #SmallBusinessRelief
Donation protected
Chamberlain Acres Garden Center and Florist is a well-loved local small business. The owners Charlie & Glenn have worked tirelessly for 15 years to create a successful business and a beautiful place for themselves and the city to be proud of. They have also consistently supported the community: hosting classes, volunteering, creating rewarding programs for seniors and educational opportunities for young entrepreneurs - and always lending a hand to their friends and neighbors.
This past year and half the global crisis of COVID-19 has been too much of a burden for many small businesses to bear and Chamberlain Acres fought hard to stay solvent, supplying the community access to the Farmers Market and fresh foods which helped so many during the worst of the pandemic, but the lengthy shut-down and stay at home orders injured the Garden Center and Floral business. Despite this, Chamberlain Acres sought to build a new barn to expand services to the Farmers Market and hopefully recover their own business stability more quickly.
It’s with much humility that they now ask for your help to pay for legal representation in an effort to address the bureaucratic chokehold put on them by local town government, which has stalled these necessary improvements to their property, lost tens of thousands of dollars away from their business and denied them fair and equal treatment.
A message from Chamberlain Acres’ Charlie & Glenn:
Donations of any amount are so meaningful and please know you will always have our deep gratitude. Donations will primarily be used for the cost of legal representation to address and hold accountable those responsible for the great deal of money lost to our business and to help ensure that a similar debacle and unfair treatment does not happen to any other well-meaning, local business person.
Any additional donations would only be used for the building materials and necessary improvements to the Farmer’s Market building, to ensure those vendors and their customers continue to benefit year-round.
Here’s the story:
Approximately a year and a half ago (prior to COVID) Chamberlain Acres approached the town board to request approval to install a 60 x 80 pole barn structure to house the popular Chamberlain Acres Farmer’s Market as well as running utilities for guest bathrooms and allowing much needed storage and greenhouse space to the business. They were advised by a code official it would be do-able. The paperwork for a building permit was filled out and financing to do the project was secured. The Farmer’s Market at Chamberlain Acres had run for 3 years at the time and was being held in the primary greenhouse making it a challenge to grow product for the garden center. A concrete floor and bathrooms would also be a welcome upgrade for their clientele. Sounds like good business sense. Good for customers, good for the town and good for the vendors.
An important note; Charlie & Glenn allow their greenhouse to be used as the location for the ONLY year-round farmers market in the Elmira/Southport area. This is NOT a money-making arrangement for them, but is done in support of the community and their business partners. The market brings local farmers and suppliers in from all over the region. The market offers the area locally grown organic fruit, vegetables, and meat options. Other vendors bring in locally sourced items to sell: coffee, teas, honey, maple syrups, candles, fresh baked breads and pastries. This farmer’s market is all about supporting many LOCAL businesses and is a great establishment for this area.
It seems any Town Board or Planning Board would be supportive and proactive in an attempt to help and guide an improvement in Chamberlain Acres’ property, since the business has had such a positive impact on the area. However, after submitting the required paperwork and securing the funds needed for the construction, suddenly everything changed. The town officials contacted their attorney and threatened to shut the Farmer’s Market down. The code official and attorney decided that the long-running Market didn’t fit the existing commercial property code, which the board originally wrote. The town attorney and officials advised the property “wasn’t being used in a manner they wanted” and everything should cease going forward. Also, because Chamberlain Acres had hosted occasional events, specifically, a town supervisor’s family wedding, they would not be given a building permit under the existing code. The board returned the paperwork and said if a new building was needed, they would now require the property to be designated as an ‘event center’ - which also required a new code to be written. In the meantime, several other businesses in the town of Southport continued to host similar events without issue. Add to this, the owner of a competitor business sits on the town board and despite adding 2 forms of commerce to his business dealings recently, no special permit or issues or obstacles ever presented themselves in his case. Most importantly, as months have gone by, other small businesses in Southport have been approved to build similar pole barn structures for varied uses, without delay, special codes or issues.
In Charlie & Glenn’s case, the planning board took eight months to write an incredibly restrictive new code which would ONLY apply to Chamberlain Acres. The town also advised they would have to make changes, such as the removal of advertising off the website and business cards as well as a reduction of services offered to the community and customers. This seemed to be an intention to deconstruct the existing business and prevent future improvements.
At present, Chamberlain Acres has had to repay the funding acquired for the project and has been unable to get the Town planning board to move on the project. Town boards are meant to protect and also, support, guide and help grow our community – that did not happen here and in an effort to uncover why they have chosen to target and harm a local business and these two owners, Chamberlain Acres has been forced to acquire legal representation.
Charlie & Glenn only wish to recoup what they lost and get clarity around why they were treated differently. Your support towards their legal representation will help them enormously. A disparity of treatment will not and should not be tolerated. They continue to move forward with intentions to improve the Chamberlain Acres property for all the Farmer’s Market vendors and their wonderful customers.
To read about Chamberlain Acres and the Farmer’s Market held there year-round, click below:
https://chamberlainacres.com/farmers-market
This past year and half the global crisis of COVID-19 has been too much of a burden for many small businesses to bear and Chamberlain Acres fought hard to stay solvent, supplying the community access to the Farmers Market and fresh foods which helped so many during the worst of the pandemic, but the lengthy shut-down and stay at home orders injured the Garden Center and Floral business. Despite this, Chamberlain Acres sought to build a new barn to expand services to the Farmers Market and hopefully recover their own business stability more quickly.
It’s with much humility that they now ask for your help to pay for legal representation in an effort to address the bureaucratic chokehold put on them by local town government, which has stalled these necessary improvements to their property, lost tens of thousands of dollars away from their business and denied them fair and equal treatment.
A message from Chamberlain Acres’ Charlie & Glenn:
Donations of any amount are so meaningful and please know you will always have our deep gratitude. Donations will primarily be used for the cost of legal representation to address and hold accountable those responsible for the great deal of money lost to our business and to help ensure that a similar debacle and unfair treatment does not happen to any other well-meaning, local business person.
Any additional donations would only be used for the building materials and necessary improvements to the Farmer’s Market building, to ensure those vendors and their customers continue to benefit year-round.
Here’s the story:
Approximately a year and a half ago (prior to COVID) Chamberlain Acres approached the town board to request approval to install a 60 x 80 pole barn structure to house the popular Chamberlain Acres Farmer’s Market as well as running utilities for guest bathrooms and allowing much needed storage and greenhouse space to the business. They were advised by a code official it would be do-able. The paperwork for a building permit was filled out and financing to do the project was secured. The Farmer’s Market at Chamberlain Acres had run for 3 years at the time and was being held in the primary greenhouse making it a challenge to grow product for the garden center. A concrete floor and bathrooms would also be a welcome upgrade for their clientele. Sounds like good business sense. Good for customers, good for the town and good for the vendors.
An important note; Charlie & Glenn allow their greenhouse to be used as the location for the ONLY year-round farmers market in the Elmira/Southport area. This is NOT a money-making arrangement for them, but is done in support of the community and their business partners. The market brings local farmers and suppliers in from all over the region. The market offers the area locally grown organic fruit, vegetables, and meat options. Other vendors bring in locally sourced items to sell: coffee, teas, honey, maple syrups, candles, fresh baked breads and pastries. This farmer’s market is all about supporting many LOCAL businesses and is a great establishment for this area.
It seems any Town Board or Planning Board would be supportive and proactive in an attempt to help and guide an improvement in Chamberlain Acres’ property, since the business has had such a positive impact on the area. However, after submitting the required paperwork and securing the funds needed for the construction, suddenly everything changed. The town officials contacted their attorney and threatened to shut the Farmer’s Market down. The code official and attorney decided that the long-running Market didn’t fit the existing commercial property code, which the board originally wrote. The town attorney and officials advised the property “wasn’t being used in a manner they wanted” and everything should cease going forward. Also, because Chamberlain Acres had hosted occasional events, specifically, a town supervisor’s family wedding, they would not be given a building permit under the existing code. The board returned the paperwork and said if a new building was needed, they would now require the property to be designated as an ‘event center’ - which also required a new code to be written. In the meantime, several other businesses in the town of Southport continued to host similar events without issue. Add to this, the owner of a competitor business sits on the town board and despite adding 2 forms of commerce to his business dealings recently, no special permit or issues or obstacles ever presented themselves in his case. Most importantly, as months have gone by, other small businesses in Southport have been approved to build similar pole barn structures for varied uses, without delay, special codes or issues.
In Charlie & Glenn’s case, the planning board took eight months to write an incredibly restrictive new code which would ONLY apply to Chamberlain Acres. The town also advised they would have to make changes, such as the removal of advertising off the website and business cards as well as a reduction of services offered to the community and customers. This seemed to be an intention to deconstruct the existing business and prevent future improvements.
At present, Chamberlain Acres has had to repay the funding acquired for the project and has been unable to get the Town planning board to move on the project. Town boards are meant to protect and also, support, guide and help grow our community – that did not happen here and in an effort to uncover why they have chosen to target and harm a local business and these two owners, Chamberlain Acres has been forced to acquire legal representation.
Charlie & Glenn only wish to recoup what they lost and get clarity around why they were treated differently. Your support towards their legal representation will help them enormously. A disparity of treatment will not and should not be tolerated. They continue to move forward with intentions to improve the Chamberlain Acres property for all the Farmer’s Market vendors and their wonderful customers.
To read about Chamberlain Acres and the Farmer’s Market held there year-round, click below:
https://chamberlainacres.com/farmers-market
Organizer and beneficiary
Friends of Chamberlain Acres
Organizer
Elmira, NY
Charles Todd
Beneficiary
