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

The Developmental Regulations chapter's administrative provisions carve agriculture out of county zoning by name. Section 601(a), titled 'Bona Fide Farming Exempt from County Zoning,' states that the zoning article does not affect property used for bona fide farm purposes, while clarifying that the exemption does not limit zoning as applied to nonfarm uses of farm property. Bona fide farm purposes reach broadly: production and activities relating or incidental to crops, grains, fruits, vegetables, ornamental and flowering plants, dairy, livestock, poultry, and all other forms of agriculture as defined under state law, plus activities incident to the farm, including existing or new residences built to the applicable residential building code and occupied by the farm's owner, lessee, or operator, and other buildings or structures that shelter or support the farm use and operation.

The exemption extends to agritourism buildings and structures on a property whose owner holds a qualifying farm sales-tax exemption certificate or is enrolled in the state's present-use value program, covering weddings, receptions, meetings, and other events tied to the farm's rural setting; that agritourism exemption lapses if the qualifying status is not maintained for three years, at which point the building becomes subject to the zoning article as of the date it stopped qualifying. To prove bona fide farm status, a landowner can point to a farm sales-tax exemption certificate, a present-use value property tax listing, a Schedule F from a recent federal tax return, or a forest management plan.