Gordon County, GA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

The Unified Land Development Code sets up three rural districts in unincorporated Gordon County. RC-1 Rural Conservation protects environmentally sensitive land, farmland, and ridge lines. A-1 Agricultural is the working-farm district, with a required minimum tract size of five (5) acres. RA-1 Residential Agricultural blends farms and homes on a two (2) acre minimum tract. Section 4.03.02(A) makes agricultural and farming operations permissible in the A-1, RA-1, I-1, and I-2 districts, subject to the district standards and the supplemental table in that section.

That table lists a minimum land area of 5 acres and names the livestock allowed: poultry (chicken coops), swine, bovine, goats, sheep, and equine. It requires customer parking for direct sales or "pick your own" sales, a management plan for odor and pests, and a fenced parcel wherever free roaming livestock is kept. Setback entries in the table run from 50 feet from all property lines to 100 feet from all property lines plus 500 feet from any neighboring residential dwelling.

The right-to-farm language sits in the poultry provisions of Section 4.03.02(K). The Board of Commissioners found a legitimate public need to protect the right to farm in Gordon County while shielding residents from unreasonable interference by large new poultry farms. A dry litter poultry operation, defined as more than 1,000 birds on site, needs a conditional use permit from the Board of Commissioners, and no part of its confinement area can sit 200 feet or less from the parcel boundary, 500 feet or less from a residence, or 1,500 feet or less from a school, church, or public park. Existing operations that miss these marks continue as existing uses.

Farms get relief elsewhere in the code. Section 3.06.03 exempts agricultural operations from the county erosion ordinance, Section 3.02.05 exempts normal agricultural activities from watershed permit requirements when they follow Georgia Department of Agriculture and USDA best management practices, and the A-1 and RA-1 impervious surface cap is 25 percent. A rear yard must run 50 feet where a lot abuts an A-1 district with active farming or processing operations.