Sedgwick County, KS Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

A. 12-741 et seq. Its general applicability rule, Sec. I-D, extends the Code to every use of land and every building or development activity within the zoning jurisdictions of the City of Wichita and Sedgwick County, and makes it effective throughout the county except inside the corporate limits of incorporated cities other than Wichita. Sec. I-E then carves agriculture out of that reach: land in the unincorporated county used for agricultural purposes, and any buildings on it, fall outside the UZC entirely, so long as the land and buildings are used for agricultural purposes and no other.

A farm residence counts too, because the Code treats residential uses accessory to agriculture as agricultural in nature for purposes of the exemption. The Code is explicit that this relief is zoning-only: it notes 'building permits may be required' even where the zoning exemption applies, so a new farm structure can still trigger the county's building permit and inspection process under the Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Building and Trade Code. The exemption also has a hard geographic limit: it 'shall be of no effect within the corporate limits of the City of Wichita,' so annexation into the city ends it immediately and the parcel becomes subject to the full UZC and whatever zoning district applies after annexation.

The UZC's Article II definitions section defines 'Agriculture' broadly to include growing crops, trees and forestry products, raising livestock, and on-site sales of produce, nursery stock, firewood and Christmas trees, and, in the unincorporated county only, an expanded range of agritourism-style public uses.