Lincoln County, SD Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

Section 154.062 of the zoning ordinance sets the A-1 Agricultural District's baseline yard requirements at a 30-foot front yard, a 30-foot rear yard, and a 7-foot side yard, paired with a 1-acre minimum lot and 125-foot minimum lot width. The 30-foot front yard jumps to 50 feet whenever the lot fronts a major arterial street or section line road, reflecting the county's road-safety concern along its higher-traffic corridors. A double-frontage lot must provide the required front yard on each street it touches under § 154.062(A), and nonconforming lots that were smaller or narrower than these standards on August 3, 1995, and have not changed since, keep the right to any use permitted in the district under § 154.062(B).

Existing buildings whose side yards are already tighter than the current 7-foot standard may still add on in line with the existing wall, as long as the addition comes no closer to the lot line than the original building, per § 154.062(C), and a building may sit within the required front yard, though never closer to the right-of-way than an existing legal nonconforming building and never more than 150 feet from it, under § 154.062(D). The Office of Planning and Zoning checks these figures against every A-1 building permit application and site plan; a conditional use permit for a use like a livestock sales barn or CAFO can carry its own, larger setback requirements layered on top of this baseline table.