Clay, NY Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Section 230-13.A creates the RA-100 Residential Agricultural District, based on the former A-1 zone, stating its intent is to accommodate agricultural activities, provide a setting for low-density family dwellings, and allow supportive nonresidential development in parts of the Town unlikely to get both public water and sewer service. Within RA-100, the Office of Planning and Development can issue a straightforward building permit, without any board hearing, for a one-family home, a farm, cropland, or a farm stand. Commercial nurseries and commercial greenhouses, added to the district's site plan list on October 19, 2009 by Local Law No.

4-2009, need Planning Board site plan approval instead. Beyond the base use list, § 230-13.A(6) gives a special allowance to any one-family dwelling on a lot of five acres or more: the owner may use part of the lot to raise agricultural products, other than livestock, for personal consumption or for sale; may run a seasonal farm stand with a ZBA special permit; may build accessory farm structures under the ordinary residential dimensional standards; and may keep agricultural livestock as a personal food source or as pets.

Uses like an animal care/training facility, an animal boarding/breeding facility or a veterinary care facility sit on a separate, more restrictive Town Board special permit list in the same district, so the by-right farming allowance does not extend to a commercial kennel or clinic.