Blue Arrow Farm and Town of Warwick car show agreement stands after social media fight

In February, Town of Warwick officials and Blue Arrow Farm representatives agreed the farm would cut back on the number of car shows and large events hosted at the farm in order to comply with its site plan.

“In past years, from approximately April to sometime in October, Blue Arrow has had weekly car shows on Wednesdays that bring in 300 to 600 people, which is well over the limit of 250 in their site plan and they also have gone over the allowable number of vehicles,” Warwick Town Supervisor Jesse Dwyer told The Warwick Advertiser. “Over the last year or so, we made it clear that if they wanted to continue operating outside of their site plan, they needed to amend their site plan.”

In late 2024, Blue Arrow was served with a formal site plan violation for over expansion of parking areas, events exceeding 250 people without a special event permit and constructing an outdoor stage, food court and miscellaneous structures.

Blue Arrow Farm attorney Robert Meloni said the farm – which paid $1,000 in fines in Warwick municipal court even though it disagreed that the site plan was violated – then made the decision to begin the process of amending the site plan to avoid further violations.

“Blue Arrow spent $25,000 on consultants for purposes of amending the site plan last year,” Meloni said. “However, when the town required a fee of $26,000 to go before the planning board, the farm balked due to the prospect of spending upwards of $50,000 for an unknown outcome.”

The fee, Dwyer said, comes from escrow held by the town and is used for the town’s consultants to work with applicants that come before various town boards and is not specific to Blue Arrow.

After Blue Arrow decided not to amend its site plan, the two sides agreed to meet on Feb. 11 of this year to find common ground. The town and Blue Arrow agreed that while the farm could not hold car shows weekly spring through fall, it could hold six special events a year if a special event permit was secured from the town prior to each event.

As of May 5, according to Dwyer, that verbal agreement was in good standing

“We have no reason to believe they are doing anything they shouldn’t be doing at this point,” Dwyer said. “This time last year they had started their car shows every Wednesday. Now, they are having indoor concerts which is fine and they were granted a special permit for a line dancing event.”

Controversy on social media

A social media firestorm erupted last month when a petition from Friends of Blue Arrow Farm circulated on Facebook and Change.org calling on the town to support the farm’s weekly car show and community events. The petition, titled, “Petition to Save Blue Arrow Farm and Its Community Events,” had 1,420 signatures as of Wednesday and caused some supporters of the farm to think the farm was in danger of being shut down by the town.

“We respectfully request that the Town Board allow continuation of these weekly events or work collaboratively to establish reasonable guidelines without undue restriction,” reads a portion of the petition. “A core purpose of local government is to support and encourage lawful small businesses that are valued by the community—not to impose unnecessary barriers on establishments that clearly benefit local residents.”

That language caught the attention of Dwyer, who said he felt as though the town was being unfairly attacked. In an April 20 response on the town’s Facebook page, Dwyer said the town supports the farm but also pointed out the 2024 violations and the number of police blotters related to the farm since 2019.

“They caused our police officers to go there 131 times in that time [2019 to 2024]. Some may have been a result of a faulty alarm, animal incidents or noise complaints. The fact is, what I posted is factual,” said Dwyer.

Meloni objected to Dwyer’s characterization.

“That statement by the supervisor is misleading and it portrays an out-of-control situation at Blue Arrow Farrm when nothing could be further from the truth,” Meloni said. “To my knowledge, the police have not been called for an incident during an event and there was an issue with a faulty alarm that has been corrected. When we see those records, we are confident they will confirm our position and serve as a point of clarification.”

Meloni said the farm was not responsible for the petition.

“I felt the need to let the public know there had been issues and we are working towards a solution,” Dwyer said. “As for the farm losing business, I have gotten two recent inquiries from people who had booked weddings there who wanted to know if everything was ok with Blue Arrow Farm before giving them the rest of their money. I told them as long as you are under 250 people you can have a wedding at Blue Arrow Farm. The last thing we want is Blue Arrow or any of our businesses to lose business.”