ALPINE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Brechting Family Farm is run by Marty Brechting. His great-grandfather started the homestead in 1857.
The farm is one that does what farms should, in Marty's eyes: feed people. They sell in bulk, so folks can get fresh produce, grown right off of Alpine Avenue in Kent County, at the best possible price. Most customers are repeat customers.
But on the other side of a tree line against the cornfield Marty's brother owns, the land has been leveled. A housing development is going in, and that was always part of the plan in Alpine Township. But the plan is proposed to change.
“Every piece that you chip off of it makes the foundation that much weaker,” Brechting said.
However, the new township Master Plan has Marty and his family farm operation concerned. New plans involve double the homes going in the same exact spot, right on the other side of his brother's cornfield.
Marty worries about the dust from his combine bothering people who'd live in a more densely populated neighborhood, and his family farm being pushed out.
“It’s gonna start with this one. It will be a snowball effect. That’s the top of the hill, it’ll roll right down that hill and up the next one?” Brechting said.
His 70-acre farm is you-pick. From pumpkins in the fall, to peppers in the summer: Marty farms the same land his great-grandfather did 154 years ago.
It's a special plot of land, Marty says. Not all ground can produce the number of fresh vegetables his family's land can. The hills and valleys, variety of soil, and conditions create the perfect ground for a farm.
Marty says they have nothing against new development. They want development that makes sense. To him, a housing development smack against his family farm tells him what's to come: an end of an era.
“I just hope that people see this, and realize that there are farmers out here that want to farm,” Marty said.
One day, Marty's son wants to take over the family farm. They worry that won't be a possibility when the time comes, if enough community members don't come together to ask the township to keep the farming community in mind when creating a new master plan.
No official future land use plan changes have been made. Tonight at 7pm, community members are invited to provide their feedback to the township, before they make a plan that the zoning board will go off of for years to come.
In a survey of township residents, farmland preservation was resident's number one priority.
