Boone County, IN Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Section 157.062 governs single-family homes built outside a platted subdivision in the AG district, treating them as a restricted use that requires site-by-site review by the Area Plan Commission. Before a building permit issues, Section 157.062(A)(3) requires commitments recorded with the Boone County Recorder under I.C. 36-7-4-921 to protect residential uses from agricultural activities and vice versa. The first commitment invokes the Right-to-Farm Law of Indiana directly: the applicant must acknowledge that agricultural uses are permitted in the surrounding area, that no agricultural or agri-business operation in the area shall be or become a nuisance, and must agree not to object to the continuation of any such operation as long as it does not constitute a nuisance.

Section 157.062(A)(2) pairs that commitment with a physical buffer: new driveways in the AG district must be sited along the property line to allow future shared access, and the residential lot must carry a 40-foot setback from property lines abutting active agricultural uses regardless of their zoning. A second required commitment addresses future subdivision: once a building permit issues for a home on a lot of four acres or larger, further subdividing that parcel requires a special exception for a minor residential subdivision, reviewed by both the BZA and the APC.

These provisions apply only to new houses in the AG district; they do not touch farming operations themselves, which the AG district's own stated purpose is to keep viable by minimizing the loss of farmland to residential encroachment.