Leominster, MA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

City Code § 22-19 creates the Rural Residence and Agriculture (RR) district with the stated purpose of setting aside rural areas of the city for residential and farming uses, and the district's dimensional rules give agriculture a real advantage over other uses on the same land. 1, cultivated uses, meaning crops, orchards, market gardens and similar farming activity, are allowed up to all property lines and street lines, with no minimum setback at all, a dimensional exemption no other use in the district receives. 2 requires every other permitted use in the RR district, structures, buildings and non-cultivated activity, to sit back at least twenty-five feet from any street line, so a farm building faces a real setback even though the crops around it do not.

1 are broad: poultry farms, pig farms, market gardens, orchards, nurseries, greenhouses, and farm-stands for the sale of produce mainly raised on the premises, covering both livestock and crop agriculture as well as direct retail sale of what the farm grows. The RR district also allows a single accessory dwelling unit by right under article XV, and imposes no additional general provisions beyond the standard use, dimensional, performance, parking, sign and site plan rules that article III and article VII otherwise apply citywide. Customer parking for a farm-stand or similar use is allowed up to the street line, mirroring the same no-setback treatment given to cultivation itself.