Fitchburg, WI Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Chapter 22's Article V agricultural districts are built around the A-X Exclusive Agriculture District, established under Sec. 22-481 to preserve productive farmland for food and fiber production, prevent conflicts between farm and non-farm land uses, and let the city carry out the county's certified farmland preservation plan under Wisconsin's Farmland Preservation Law; landowners on a qualifying A-X parcel can claim the income tax credit under Wis. 09(11). Permitted uses in A-X, set out in Sec. 22-482, include general agricultural operations as long as any facility keeping cattle, swine, poultry, sheep or goats stays under 500 animal units, one new farm residence per farm occupied by someone earning more than half their gross income from the farm, and accessory uses like roadside stands selling that farm's own products, a wind tower, solar panels or a manure digester serving a single farm, and farm entertainment activities capped under 500 attendees at a time.

Getting land out of A-X is deliberately hard: Sec. 22-481(c) lets the plan commission consider a rezone only after a public hearing under Wis. 48, and only if the city finds the land is better suited to a non-agricultural use, the rezoning tracks the comprehensive plan and the county's certified farmland preservation plan, and, critically, that it will not substantially impair or limit current or future agricultural use of surrounding parcels zoned for or legally restricted to agricultural use. Approved A-X rezones must be reported to the state and Dane County by March 1 of each year.