Polk County, IA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Article 4, Division 9 of the Polk County Zoning Ordinance carries the county's agricultural exemption: no regulation in the Ordinance applies to land, farm houses, farm barns, farm outbuildings or other structures that are primarily adapted, by their nature and the amount of land involved, for agricultural use, and the exemption lasts only while the property is actually used that way. On a parcel of 70 acres or more, that exemption applies automatically. On a smaller parcel, the owner has to prove the agricultural use is genuine by filing an Agricultural Exemption Application with Polk County; the Zoning Administrator reviews the submission and issues a written determination granting or denying it.

If the exemption is approved, the owner still has to submit permit applications and information for any proposed structure, but Public Works only collects inspection fees if the owner actually requests an inspection. If the exemption is denied, the property falls back under every zoning requirement that would otherwise apply, including dimensional standards, use limits and permit fees. Two categories of county regulation survive the exemption no matter how the property is used: floodplain rules governing any structure, dam, obstruction, deposit or excavation in a flood plain, and health regulations covering on-site wastewater septic systems and private wells.

Those two carve-outs mean an exempt farm building still needs floodplain compliance if it sits in a mapped flood plain, and any septic system or well still needs to meet county and state health department standards regardless of the parcel's agricultural status.