La Plata County, CO Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Chapter 70 of the Land Use Code holds the general site development standards applicable to all development, so the right to farm and ranch policy in section 70-13 reaches projects anywhere in unincorporated La Plata County, Colorado, not only inside the Animas Valley. Zone districts in Chapter 65 cover the Animas Valley and a few neighborhood areas, which makes section 70-13 the standard that follows farm neighbors wherever a development is proposed.

The purpose clause names what the county expects people near farms to live with: noise, odors, dust, mud, smoke, ditch and field burning, machinery and livestock on public roads, odors from manure and feeds and from chemical applications, lights and noises at all hours of the day and night, and on-farm processing and marketing of crops and livestock. Section 70-13.II says no inconvenience shall be considered a nuisance so long as it occurs as part of non-negligent and legal agricultural practices under C.R.S. § 35-3.5-101 et seq.

The working tool is section 70-13.III. The county can impose conditions on approval of any development so that it does not adversely affect adjacent or near-by agricultural operations or limit their viability. The listed subjects are nuisance or liability issues, predation of stock by domestic dogs, traffic conflicts, interference with irrigation, proliferation of undesirable plants and rodents, erosion, and wildlife intrusion. Section 70-13.IV lets the decision-making body require a plat note, and section 70-13.V states that Colorado is a fence out law state: owners of real property fence livestock out before recovery of damages for trespassing livestock, citing C.R.S. § 35-46-101 et seq.

The zoning side sits in other chapters. In the Animas Valley, section 65-3 lists commercial livestock and agriculture-related operations and their accessory structures as uses permitted by right in the fifteen-acre, ten-acre and five-acre minimum single-family residential districts, and the river corridor district in section 65-4 allows one dwelling unit per existing legal lot of record or per thirty-five (35) acres, whichever is less, alongside those operations. Section 66-3 says no land use permit is required for agriculture as defined in Chapter 62 or for AgPlus uses. An AgPlus parcel must have been classified by the county assessor as agricultural in the previous two (2) years, and most AgPlus uses also require a minimum of fifteen (15) acres.