Cincinnati, OH Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Chapter 1422 of the Cincinnati Zoning Code, Urban Agriculture: Horticulture and Animal Keeping, draws the zoning line between a Garden and a Farm by acreage rather than by use. Under § 1422-03(a), a Garden is any cultivated area under 20,000 square feet, and it's permitted by right in every zoning district in the city, subject only to the chapter's other limitations; large-scale equipment like tractors or tillers that's the size of an economy car or bigger is barred from a Garden altogether. Once cultivated land reaches 20,000 square feet, § 1422-03(b) reclassifies the operation as a Farm.

A Farm may use full-size agricultural equipment, but that equipment must be kept fully enclosed in an Agricultural Structure whenever it isn't in use, and, critically, a Farm sited in a residential zoning district can't simply start operating: it needs Conditional Use approval from the Zoning Hearing Examiner under Chapter 1445 first. Where a parcel carries no dwelling or other principal structure, § 1422-03(c) requires any permanent Agricultural Structure on it to carry a recorded deed restriction, approved by the City Solicitor, limiting the parcel to agricultural use; releasing that restriction counts as abandonment of the use under Chapter 1447.

New agricultural development can also trigger Chapter 1423's landscaping and buffer-yard standards under § 1422-03(f). The chapter's stated purpose, per § 1422-01, is to permit growing food and raising animals 'in a manner that is appropriate to the surrounding neighborhood land uses,' improving food access citywide, the ordinance dates to Ord. No. 251-2019, effective July 26, 2019.