Highlands County, FL Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

200 establishes the AU Agricultural District as intended for areas presently and primarily agricultural, permitting groves, produce farms, truck gardens, horticultural farms, nurseries, sod farms, hydroponic gardens, greenhouses, forestry and beekeeping as principal uses, along with cattle or dairy farming, though not commercial goat, sheep or hog raising as a principal use. A landowner may keep up to nine hogs, sheep and goats collectively, of which no more than three may be hogs, without triggering the special-exception process; raising more than that, or 100 or more poultry, requires a special exception from the Board of Adjustment after a public hearing.

Commercial livestock structures must sit at least 500 feet from a dwelling under separate ownership or residentially zoned land and 100 feet from any lot line (200 feet for poultry or hog structures), though the section shields an existing, conforming agricultural structure from being forced into violation solely because nearby land is later rezoned residential or a new dwelling is built close by. The district's minimum lot size is five acres with 100 feet of width, though smaller parcels can qualify under the family homestead provision or a transfer-of-development-rights/clustering arrangement.

Where a landowner uses that transfer-of-development-rights or clustering option, Sec. 14, Florida's Right to Farm Act, tying the county's own zoning approval process directly to the state law that shields bona fide farm operations from many nuisance claims once they have operated for more than a year.