Lakeville, MN Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Lakeville City Code section 11-46-15 sets the lot and setback requirements for the A-P, Agricultural Preserve district, which the city maintains under Minnesota Statutes section 473H.17 to reserve land for long-term agricultural use per section 11-46-3. Alongside a 40-acre minimum lot area, 500-foot lot width, 30-foot front and rear setbacks and 10-foot side setbacks (30 feet abutting a public right-of-way), the section bars any new residential dwelling built after April 5, 2004 from locating within 1,000 feet of an existing animal feedlot, protecting the feedlot operation from encroaching housing.

The only exception is a dwelling built as the feedlot owner's own principal residence on the same parcel and under the same ownership, as further regulated by section 11-35-5(D)(1). The A-P district's permitted uses under section 11-46-5 include farms, agriculture, nurseries, wholesale nurseries, greenhouses and tree farms, and section 11-46-9(F) separately allows farm buildings for keeping farm animals as a conditional use even within 300 feet of an existing residence on an abutting property. Building height in the A-P district is capped at three stories or 35 feet under section 11-46-17.

The adjacent RA, Rural/Agricultural district (chapter 47) carries its own permitted farm uses and lot standards. Planning and Community Development reviews new dwelling applications against the feedlot buffer at the building permit stage, and a proposed home inside the 1,000-foot buffer without qualifying ownership must be denied or redesigned outside the restricted area.