Local Greenhouse Facing Eviction

I never thought I'd face adult bullies in my life. I never imagined that people existed in my community who could dedicate their time, money and effort into crushing my family for the sake of their own pride and ego. 

Yet here we are, fighting an expensive legal battle against people who are willing to pour tens of thousands of dollars into shutting us down. 

We just want to grow tomatoes for our community! 

We are at the end of what we are able to fight alone, and we still have legal battles looming over us.  As we face the unthinkable, we find ourselves looking for support from a bigger community who believes in the production of local food, agricultural sustainability, small farms and big dreams. 

If that includes you, and you want to help us continue to farm, here are some options:

1. Give financially. These contributions are always appreciated and ease the burden we face.

2. Send us letters of support.  We can give these to the county commissioners letting them know their decision was right. (These letters might also be used in the District Court of Appeals). 

3. Share this GoFundMe with your friends and facebook community.  We can't reach everybody. But if we go viral like a keyboard cat video we can maybe make a difference. 

4. Dare to chase your dreams! It gives us  courage to pursue what seems impossible when we know we aren't the only ones out there willing to be different. 


Some background (if you want it):

After nearly a decade in the Army, my wife and I decided it was time to invest in the growth of my family, my community, and my dreams. 

So in October of 2012, my family decided to pursue the dream of owning  our own farm, which centered around a hydroponic tomato greenhouse.  

We partnered with a like-minded family, and we received a loan to begin building the greenhouse on our partner's 41 acre parcel in Black Forest, Colorado. 

The parcel is seen below: 


After painstakingly crafting a viable plan for the business we went to get permits from the county. 

Talk about a learning experience...we went through all the legalities involved and met all the criteria required by law, but the "Not In My Back Yard" mentality brought us to public hearings for over a year.

In order to navigate this process, we had the choice of hiring a consultant to represent us,  (to the tune of $25,000), or we could represent ourselves. The strong recommendation was to get help  since the system was convoluted and the opponents too  strong, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. 

You see, I don't believe it should cost an average man $25K to represent himself or his ideas before his elected government, so I did it myself. 

And we got approved.  

There were significant costs associated with this still, but in the eupohria of being able to move forward, we let it go.

(During this time incredibly intense time of learning the ins and outs of county zoning,  I was  also using my veteran benefits to study hydroponic growing and controlled environment agriculture.)

With that done, we thought the war was over.  After all, during this process we had made some very expensive and prohibitive changes to our plans in order to appease the unpleasable neighbors. So they were happy, right? 

We couldn't have been more wrong.  

What we had planned on being a manageable venture quickly became a legal battle for the right to farm for our community.  

The neighbors appealed the decision of the county and brought us to court. We soon found ourselves spending tens of thousands of dollars on land use lawyers to fight the lawsuit agains the decision made by the county. 

(I would have represented myself again, but apparently this legal action is highly technical, and doesn't work well with self-representation). 

Meanwhile, we continued to build, and hope, and pray. 

In November of 2014, two long years after we started the farm, we received a decision in our favor from the court of appeals. 

We had won again. 

But the neighbors wouldn't give up.  

They began raising money to bring us to a district court of appeals. And it seems the higher the court, the more expensive the costs. 

My family has directly and indirectly invested every asset we have to pursue this dream, and now the litigation of a few rich and biased individuals threaten to wrench it all from our hands.  

We have given away thousands of pounds of tomatoes in the hope of appeasing the neighbors, to no avail.

We have already fought and won several battles, but there seems to be no end to the belligerence  (or funding) of those who believe they have the right to control the property and purpose of others. 

We are trying to raise money to recoup the unexpected costs of litigation so far, (both direct and indirect) and to fight the next battle in the District Court of Appeals. 

 We have learned that money doesn't grow on vines either, so where can tomato farmers find this kind of money? 

With your help we can keep moving forward in pursuing our dream, producing our tomatoes, and providing healthy organic tomatoes for our community. 

Read more about us below.

Minibellys Farm