Farmland Protection | Food Systems

The county’s zoning ordinance addresses farmland protection. It establishes a Limited Agricultural district intended primarily for modern agriculture and forestry practices where those uses are “king” and the “right to farm” is clearly established as public policy; land divisions for residential uses are substantially limited and buffers with adjoining farmland are emphasized (§3-201). Residential densities are based on a sliding scale where the number of new lots created from a parcel is determined by the acreage of the parent parcel (§3-202[.5]). Criteria for residential subdivisions include a clustering requirement with 80 percent open space to perpetuate continued use of the property in the rural economy; building sites are to be located on the least productive agricultural lands (§3-203).