Bulloch County, GA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Article 5 of the Bulloch County Zoning Ordinance (Appendix C) establishes the AG-5 district as the county's agricultural protection tool. Section 500's statement of purpose says the agricultural districts are established as districts in which the principal use of land is for farming, dairying, forestry operations and other agricultural activities, and that the specific intent of the article is to protect land needed and used for agricultural pursuits from encroachment by untimely and unplanned residential, commercial, or industrial development, while allowing continuation of existing agricultural pursuits where future development is anticipated but premature.

Section 501 sets the minimum lot size for AG-5 at five acres and describes the district as low-to-medium density, with agriculture as the primary land use and residences permitted as an incidental use. Section 503 lists farms, fruit and vegetable markets, nurseries and farm supply stores, and commercial kennels as permitted or conditional principal uses, while Section 504 fixes AG-5 development standards: a minimum lot area of five acres (or as set by the county health department), 200-foot minimum lot width, a 100-foot minimum front-yard setback, 30-foot side-yard setback, 50-foot rear-yard setback, and a 45-foot maximum building height (with a one-foot yard increase for every two feet of additional height for non-habitable projections).

AG-5 also allows farm-worker manufactured housing at one per five acres, at least 200 feet from another manufactured home, tied to the agricultural operation of the farm. These standards function as the county's right-to-farm mechanism by zoning agricultural land separately from residential and commercial districts and applying larger setbacks and lower density than the county's R-80 through R-3 residential districts.