Macon County, IL Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

005 EXCLUSIONS is the provision that keeps the county's zoning chapter, Chapter 155, out of the way of working farms in the unincorporated county. It provides that nothing in the zoning regulations imposes restrictions or requires a permit for land zoned or used for agricultural purposes, or for erecting, maintaining, repairing, altering, remodeling, or extending agricultural buildings and structures on that land, with one condition: those buildings and structures still have to conform to the county's building or setback lines. 048(A)(1), which repeats that agricultural land and buildings are outside the chapter's permit requirements until the land ceases to be used solely for agricultural purposes, at which point the zoning chapter applies in full.

100, backs the exemption with an explicit purpose clause: the district exists to encourage agricultural and related uses as the principal use of the land, prevent the mixing of urban and rural uses that creates conflict and pushes higher tax burdens onto farmland, and stop the premature end of agricultural operations. Permitted A1 uses on a ten-acre minimum tract include farming and its usual buildings, truck and flower gardening, nurseries, orchards, greenhouses, and roadside stands selling only farm products grown on the premises. 005 separately places outside the chapter's reach as well.