Lake Elsinore, CA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Lake Elsinore Municipal Code § 17.100.030 lists the uses permitted in the OS Open Space District, and agricultural use is item A.3: land may be farmed only if an agreement between the City and the landowner is made allowing the owner to operate under the California Land Conservation Act, the state's Williamson Act program that trades reduced property tax assessments for a landowner's contractual commitment to keep the parcel in agricultural or open-space use. The OS District itself is defined in § 17.100.010 as land unsuited for residential or other intensive development because it would endanger health, safety or welfare through flooding, fire or erosion, or land the City has set aside for recreation, and § 17.100.020 places both publicly owned parkland, floodplains and drainage channels, and privately owned steep, flood-prone or geologically unstable parcels into the district.

Outside an active Williamson Act contract, § 17.100.030(B) prohibits residential uses, commercial uses other than those incidental to permitted recreation, and industrial uses in the OS District entirely, so a landowner cannot simply start farming OS-zoned land without first securing that agreement with the City. Structures tied to a permitted OS use also face a 25-foot, one-story height cap under § 17.100.040 and a 30 percent lot coverage limit under § 17.100.050. Because the Williamson Act contract runs with the land and through the City rather than the state directly, a Lake Elsinore property owner seeking agricultural status in the OS District applies through Community Development to establish the required agreement before any agricultural structure or activity can be approved on the parcel.