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

Section 1005 of the Carteret County Zoning Ordinance defines the county's jurisdiction as covering the unincorporated areas, excluding land regulated by the Down East Conservation Ordinance or another government, and explicitly states these regulations do not apply to bona fide farms, though nonfarm uses on a farm may still be regulated under Section 1007. Section 1009 repeats that carve-out, confirming zoning requirements do not apply to bona fide farms as defined in the definitions article. Within the zoned areas that remain, the county's district hierarchy begins with RA, the Rural Agricultural district described in Section 1008.A, which encompasses land primarily suited for agriculture, agriculturally related uses, very low density residential development, and woodlands; it sits at the top of the district list, ahead of every residential and business classification.

Because a bona fide farm is defined elsewhere in the code as any tract of at least three acres used for dairying, raising agricultural products, forest products, livestock, or poultry, most working farms in Down East and other unincorporated parts of the county fall entirely outside the zoning ordinance's reach for their farm operations, while any non-farm structure or use on that same land, such as a retail building unrelated to the farm, remains subject to the RA district's standards and the ordinance generally.