The people of Jackson Township have spoken. Not only do they not want to be home to the world’s tallest goat tower, but they also do not want a Christmas tree farm.
At 7 p.m. on July 23 the Cicero/Jackson Township Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) met at the Red Bridge Park Community Building, 697 W. Jackson St., Cicero. One item on the agenda was a variance application from James Adams of Juniper Farms, LLC to allow them to build both a Christmas tree farm in the style of Medieval European village and also the world’s tallest goat tower. This variance was originally on the June BZA agenda but was tabled until July.
Juniper Farms is owned by Rich and Lori Adams of Carmel. James Adams, their son and the BZA applicant, lives in Noblesville and runs the Juniper Farms property in Cicero.
According to James Adams, neighbors from around the Juniper Farms property “came out in droves” to speak against the tower, calling it a potential eyesore and voicing concerns about traffic issues if people were to stop on the side of the road to look at a world’s record-holding tower for goats to climb.
The BZA voted 4-1 to reject the proposal, despite Adams greatly scaling back his request. Approximately 75 remonstrators appeared to object to problems with chemicals, drainage, noise, light pollution and traffic, and to voice concerns about the project to being economically viable. The Adams family were reportedly the only people appearing in support of the variance.
According to Adams, the BZA also denied Juniper Farms the option of running their proposed Christmas tree farm on their property.
The Adams family is currently undecided about what to do with the land they cannot use to run the business they had planned. They are looking for other land to purchase in a part of the county more amenable to the presence of a Christmas tree farm and an agro-tourism attraction.
If you have suggestions for where they may be able to purchase other land in or around Hamilton County for this business, you can email your suggestions to James Adams at jhuntadams@gmail.com.
Editor’s Note: On June 17, 2020, The Reporter published an article entitled “Carmel, Noblesville family wants Cicero to have world’s tallest goat tower” about Juniper Farms desire to build a worlds record agro-tourism attraction in Jackson Township. You can read the original article at this link.