Pinal County, AZ Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

050 of the Pinal County Development Services Code, adopted under Ordinance No. 011812-ZO-PZ-C-007-10 and tracing to Ordinance No. 61862, tells landowners in unincorporated Pinal County exactly when the zoning title has no say over what they do with their land. If a tract of five or more contiguous commercial acres is used for railroad, mining, metallurgical, grazing or general agriculture purposes, the county cannot use any zoning district to prevent, restrict or otherwise regulate that use. The section then defines the two farm-related categories precisely: land counts as grazing land when 50 percent or more of the owner's income from the land comes from grazing use or from renting the land out for grazing, and land counts as general agricultural land when 50 percent or more of the owner's income from the land comes from producing agricultural products or from renting the land for that production.

Below the five-acre, 50-percent-income threshold, a farm or ranch use has to fit inside the applicable zoning district's use table like any other use, most commonly GR General Rural or CR Commercial Rural. ), which limits county zoning authority over agricultural and grazing land statewide. Planning and Development Services, the county's Community Development division, administers zoning clearances and can still require a zoning clearance or building permit for structures built on the exempt acreage, since the exemption reaches land use, not construction standards.