Plans to revitalize a longstanding vineyard, in part as a wedding venue, have created a series of intense entitlement disputes in a sleepy section of rural Bucks County.
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Philadelphia wedding caterer Joe Volpe bought the Sand Castle Winery at 755 River Road in Tinicum Township in 2024. He renamed it the Blind Fox Vineyard and plotted a revitalization of the farm and wine tasting event business with roots stretching back to 1974.
But the owner on Monday filed a lawsuit in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas alleging that municipal officials have obstructed those efforts and continue to do so. His attorney says another suit is in the works.
“The Township has turned the permit process into a weapon to prevent the Owner from successfully operating the Property in accordance with its historical and zoned use as a vineyard and winery,” the complaint says.
Tinicum Township officials didn’t respond to Bisnow’s requests for comment.
After spending $1.5M on new equipment and recruiting a full-time winemaker from California’s Napa Valley, Volpe’s original plan was to have the business fully open by spring 2025.
The vineyard and winemaking operations are now active, but the complaint says Volpe has been unable to reopen the property and its tasting room to the public because the municipality is withholding permits for a series of critical projects.
Those include the relocation of a tent, the installation of two cattle guards, and the construction of a patio roof and a landscape wall.
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A key element driving the discord that wasn't mentioned in Volpe’s complaint is whether the vineyard will be used as a wedding venue, the Bucks County Herald reported.
Constituent concerns about event noise at the property have repeatedly been brought up to Tinicum Township Board of Supervisors Chairperson Eleanor Breslin and her counterparts.
“Farming protections are designed to shield normal agricultural operations from nuisance lawsuits, not to exempt commercial event centers from standard local zoning, building codes and permitting processes,” she told the Herald in June.
Volpe’s legal team argued in a May 2025 appeal to the Tinicum Township Zoning Hearing Board that a wedding wouldn't violate the property’s residential agricultural zoning so long as wine made there was the only beverage served at the event.
The document also claims the operators of the Sand Castle Winery hosted weddings at the property that didn't include beverages made on-site, but it said Volpe doesn't plan to follow suit.
“No weddings will be permitted on the Property if Blind Fox Vineyard wine is not served. … Plans for wedding events are directly tied to agriculture,” the appeal says.
Another complaint concerning the township’s interpretation of the RA zoning requirements will be filed sometime in the coming weeks, said Kaplin Stewart attorney Julie Bernstein, a member of Volpe’s legal team.
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