Brunswick County, NC Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

A Voluntary Agricultural District (VAD) must contain at least 10 contiguous acres of qualified farmland, or two or more qualified farms totaling 10 acres within a mile of each other. To qualify individually, farmland must be at least three acres, meet Brunswick County's Bona Fide Farm definition under UDO Article 12, not sit inside a planned development unless it was designed for agricultural use, follow NRCS erosion-control practices where highly erodible land exists, be the subject of a Preservation Agreement barring nonfarm development for at least ten years (except up to three new lots meeting county subdivision rules), and lie in the unincorporated county.

Landowners apply to the Agricultural Advisory Board chairperson; the Tax Assessor, Planning Department, Soil and Water Conservation District and NRCS review the application, and the Advisory Board must decide within 90 days. A denied applicant has 30 days to appeal to the Board of County Commissioners, whose decision is final. Preservation Agreements automatically renew for ten-year terms unless either side objects in writing. Landowners in a VAD are not assessed for, or required to connect to, water and sewer systems; those assessments are held in abeyance without interest until the property connects. Fees for applying, expanding or withdrawing are set by the Cooperative Extension.