Franklin County, KY Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Section 155.135 of the Franklin County zoning chapter sets the purpose of the AG district: to recognize agricultural land and to establish regulations which emphasize agricultural production and preserve a rural character. Intended uses are the raising of agricultural crops or livestock, forestry, hunting or game preserves and the ancillary services inherent to farming, along with single dwelling residences, churches and elementary and secondary schools. Under subsection (C), more than one dwelling can sit on an agricultural lot when the additional dwellings are required for family members or employees who farm the land. Conditional uses are decided by the Board of Zoning Adjustments and are marked in the Land Use Table.

The farm protection is in subsection (G). Notwithstanding any other provision of the zoning chapter, land used solely for agricultural, farming, dairying, stock raising or similar purposes has no regulations imposed as to building permits, certificates of occupancy, height, yard, location or courts requirements for agricultural buildings. That exemption has two printed limits. Setback can still be required to protect existing and proposed roads, streets and highways, and all buildings in a designated floodway or floodplain, or buildings that tend to increase flood heights or obstruct the flow of flood waters, can be fully regulated.

The dimensional table in subsection (E) applies to the district's other uses, such as dwellings: 5 acres minimum lot size, 200 feet minimum lot frontage, a 50 foot front yard, 25 foot side and rear yards and a 35 foot height limit, with a carve-out from that height limit for barns, silos, steeples, water towers, windmills and communication towers. A farmer in unincorporated Franklin County, Kentucky should treat the Fiscal Court's zoning chapter as the controlling source for the land and keep in mind that Frankfort has its own separate code.