Stephen R. Burkholder wants to run a more efficient hog farm and says he needs bigger buildings to do it. But Richmond Township officials believe the changes Burkholder has in mind would violate zoning regulations and subject neighbors to bad odors.

In 2003, the township zoning board denied Burkholder's request for relief from a setback requirement a mandate that his farm buildings be set back at least 1,500 feet from adjoining properties.

Burkholder has appealed that ruling to Berks County Court.

Many people, including farming advocates and environmental groups, are interested in the court proceeding. Both sides say more is at stake than how many pigs Burkholder can raise.

Some say expansion of farms such as Burkholder's could help the future of family farms, while others say such growth could spell their demise.

The Berks County commissioners voted 2-1 last month to support Burkholder's zoning appeal. The county's standing in the case will be argued Monday in county court.

The county owns development rights to the land and must protect its investment, county Commissioner Judith L. Schwank said. Because the farm is part of Richmond's agricultural security program, it must always be used for farming, she explained.

“It's not so much that I support hog-farm expansion,” said Schwank, a former director of the Penn State Cooperative Extension Service in Berks County, which works with farmers. “It just so happens that this is the case in which it has come up.”

Township solicitor Robert P. Grim said the county has no place in the matter.

“What they bought with their money was not the Burkholders' farm operation,” he said.

The 57-acre farm on Fleetwood-Lyons Road has at least 3,500 hogs at a time, Burkholder said.

Piglets are kept in eight nurseries in a building Burkholder wants to expand to add three nurseries and what he calls a maternity ward for his 450 sows.

The expansion would put the building about 40 feet closer to a house on Deka Road.

Burkholder also wants to construct a finishing building near the East Penn Manufacturing Co. plant, where pigs would be fed until they can be slaughtered.

The farm has a finishing building, but a contractor takes 250 pigs to another farm every three weeks before they are ready for sale.

The additional building would let Burkholder keep all the pigs about 5,200 at a time at his farm.

Grim said the 1,500-foot setback requirement is reasonable for a farm with so many pigs.

Burkholder said the triangular shape of the parcel, which was subdivided from 151 acres owned by his father, Melvin J., doesn't allow for buildings to be set back that far from its boundaries.

Larry B. Breech, president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union, said Burkholder created the problem himself when he bought the property.

“I have absolutely no sympathy for them if they can't comply with the zoning ordinance,” Breech said.

The state Nutrient Management Act, which makes farmers plan how to deal with water-quality issues, overrides township rules, Schwank said.

That law requires a setback of 100 to 300 feet for manure-storage areas, according to Doug A. Goodlander, who directs the state nutrient management program.

He said Burkholder's proposed finishing building would include a manure-storage tank, so the smaller setback would apply.

Neighbors opposed to the expansion have said the farm creates a foul odor. Burkholder doesn't even live there, they have pointed out.

Burkholder has lived in a single-story house in Rockland Township for 25 years. He said that home is better than the farm's two-story house for his wife, Darleen G., who has health problems.

Another fear among opponents is that a decision in Burkholder's favor could usher hordes of factory farms into Berks County, since smaller farms couldn't compete.

“What the commissioners are supporting puts family farms out of business,” said local Sierra Club president Robert K. Flatley.

But Bob Ruth, president of Country View Family Farms, Harrisburg, said long, expensive legal battles are what really hurts small farms.

Burkholder's pigs go to Country View, which delivers them to Hatfield Meats, for slaughter.

Burkholder, a pig farmer all his life, intends to keep fighting.

“What else do I have?” he said.

Contact reporter Rebecca Bellville at 610-371-5015 or rbellville@readingeagle.com.