Frederick County, VA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

01, the RA, Rural Areas District is Frederick County's agricultural zoning district, and Table IV-2 sets its core dimensional standards: a maximum density of one dwelling unit per five acres and a minimum lot size of five acres for every lot in the district. The five-acre figure traces to the size of the parent tract as it existed on December 11, 1991, and Chapter 144, Subdivision of Land, layers on additional rules for family divisions and rural preservation lots that let landowners subdivide below the standard density in narrow circumstances.

01A(1): on a lot of seven to 10 acres that was a lot of record before December 11, 1991, the owner can create lots of two or more acres despite the district's one-per-five-acre density limit, as long as the subdivision meets Chapter 144's requirements. The RA District also lets a working farm put up a single uninhabitable accessory structure before any house is built on the lot, so long as it meets the accessory setbacks and stays at or under 650 square feet and is never used as a residence until the primary dwelling goes up.

Together these standards keep the county's rural land in large, agriculturally usable parcels rather than dense residential subdivision, the zoning tool Frederick County uses in place of a separate right-to-farm ordinance; the code does not carry a standalone right-to-farm nuisance-immunity chapter of its own.