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

The Board of Supervisors created the A-1 General Agricultural District to protect James City County's rural character where public utilities and urban services are not planned. Under section 24-211, the district exists to maintain a rural environment suitable for farming, forestry and low-density rural residence, while allowing recreational, public, semipublic and institutional uses that need a spacious site and fit rural surroundings. The ordinance explicitly limits the scattering of commercial, industrial and urban residential uses into these rural areas, and its area regulations build in flexibility on lot size and arrangement when paired with design review by Community Development's Planning Division.

Section 24-221 turns that protective intent into enforceable numbers. General agricultural operations must provide at least one acre of open land per seven horses, eight dairy cattle, 13 slaughter or feeder cattle, 33 swine, or 130 sheep. Intensive agriculture, confined feeding operations, needs 20 acres and is capped at 1,000 cattle, horses or similar animals, 3,000 sheep, lambs or goats, 7,500 swine, 50,000 turkeys, or 100,000 chickens confined at one site. Intensive operations also carry their own setback distances under section 24-215, keeping nutrient management devices, pens and confinement structures 250 feet from any dwelling not owned by the operator and 1,000 feet from platted residential subdivisions, schools, parks and public wells. Together these sections function as James City County's local right-to-farm framework: they zone land specifically to keep farming viable while fencing off the intensity of livestock operations from residential growth.