Fort Worth, TX Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

200 of the Fort Worth Zoning Ordinance sets the AG district's purpose as continuing agricultural use of land, including farms, ranches, orchards, truck farms and nurseries, until the owner seeks a rezoning for development. A one-family dwelling is permitted only if it is clearly accessory to the agricultural operation, and tracts under ten acres in separate ownership are limited to one principal dwelling. Accessory feeding pens for livestock are allowed as long as the operation is not "obnoxious or offensive," but commercial feeding pens are barred outright.

Dimensionally, the AG table requires a 25-foot minimum front yard, a rear yard equal to 25% of lot depth (capped at 25 feet), and side yards scaled to lot width; building height is capped at 3-1/2 stories or 45 feet, though stealth telecommunication towers can reach 75 feet as a board-of-adjustment special exception, and freestanding telecommunication towers are barred entirely. 200(d)(5) separately allows barns, stables, equipment sheds, poultry houses, swine pens, granaries and silos as accessory structures, capped at 50% of the principal dwelling's area (minimum 1,500 square feet) on tracts under four acres.

102(c)-(d) makes AG the fallback classification for any parcel omitted from the district maps or newly annexed without a zoning designation, effectively giving agricultural use a default legal foothold across the city until council acts otherwise.