Elko County, NV Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Chapter 2 of the Elko County zoning title groups the agricultural districts, and § 4-2-1 is the most protective. The Board of County Commissioners states the district's purpose as protection for agricultural areas from urban development of residential subdivisions, and as an open space area around the more intensive urban uses of the county. Noncommercial seasonal recreation not requiring fixed improvements is allowed, including hunting, fishing, camping, horseback riding, ball games, archery, picnicking, snowmobiling and skiing.

Paragraph (A) lists the permitted principal uses, among them field and truck crops, orchards and vineyards, dairies, animal breeding and raising, riding academies and stables, poultry raising, pasture, livestock ranches, apiaries and home occupations, all provided there is full compliance with the definition of agriculture. That definition in § 4-1-9 describes a use of land whereby grazing and feeding of livestock or the raising of hay, grain or other produce can yield an income sufficient to support at least one person. It excludes raising livestock or fowl where the majority of the basic feeds are imported to the site rather than grown by the raiser.

Paragraph (D) sets the minimum parcel at one-sixteenth of a cadastral survey section or forty acres, with an average width of at least five hundred feet, and paragraph (E) requires front, rear and side yards of 50, 30 and 20 feet. Neighboring districts scale the standard down: the AR district in § 4-2-3 requires one acre and a 150 foot average width, and the A district in § 4-2-4 requires five acres and a 350 foot average width. The code applies only in unincorporated Elko County.