After a three-month effort and over neighbors’ objections, a Buxton couple can now expand their goat farm.

The Buxton Planning Board voted 5-1 Monday night to approve a permit allowing Tim and Marie Clements to have up to 24 goats on property they are leasing. They intend to start raising more goats on land they are leasing adjacent to their home on Hall Road, a private dirt road by Bonny Eagle Pond.

Buxton Town Hall had received numerous complaints about the plan to bring more goats onto Hall Road. Linda Mara Carlisle and Joseph Mara, who own a summer home on Hall Road, submitted a letter stating that “this is a residential road and not a farm.”

Dee Taylor and Doris Heimburg, other seasonal residents on Hall Road, also opposed the permit for the goats.

“We did not buy a house to have farm animal noises, farm smells and extra traffic on our private road,” they wrote in a letter to Buxton.

The Clementses contend that the farm, which they named Creeping Thyme Farm, will not be large and, although they are permitted to have up to 24 goats, they will not invest in that many.

“We wanted some overflow space,” Marie Clements said. “We want to be able to rotate goats in an out as we milk them so we can keep an adequate level of milk available while we make cheese.”

The Clementses said they hope to have two pens up on the property by next summer. They’ll also separate the bucks and does until they are ready to breed.

“It’s going to be a slow, gradual process,” Tim Clements said. “Not like a trailer truck backing up with 24 loads and dumping it on the ground.”

The Clementses were previously permitted to keep six adult goats at their home. Any number of kids could stay for up to six months after birth, but they had just two kids: a brown doeling and a mottled “wether,” or castrated male.

Although the Clementses live in a residential zone, Buxton allows farm animals in the zone as long as the owners meet certain requirements on distances from water sources and neighbors’ homes, among other restrictions. The Planning Board decides the number of animals a resident can keep based on lot size, area vegetation and potential neighborhood problems.

“We don’t turn requests for animals down usually,” said Planning Board Chairman Keith Emery. “I never turned animals down.”

James Logan was the dissenting vote.

Each goat is a pedigree and is registered with the American Goat Society and American Dairy Goat Association. The females have three kids each, bringing the total of goats the Clementses want to 18.

“They are expensive to raise,” Marie Clements said. “We really want this so we can make cheese and that’s all.”

Marie Clements said she is looking into getting a dairy license to sell the cheese, and has implemented the standards required for a license “because it’s a good practice,” but mostly she just gives the cheese away or sells it to family and close friends. She feeds the goats kelp, minerals, sodium bicarbonate, wheat and oats that will help produce the best milk possible.

“We really enjoy the animals and it’s relaxing to milk them,” Tim Clements said. “It’s not a huge thing where we’re going to flood the market with milk and cheese. It’s a hobby that has grown.”

Tim and Marie Clements, of Buxton, can now expand their goat farm after the Buxton Planning Board voted 5-1 Monday night to approve a permit allowing the couple to have up to 24 goats on property they are leasing.