Madison, WI Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Madison writes its agricultural zoning into Sec. 28.092 of the Zoning Code Ordinance. The A district applies to rural agricultural areas that the Comprehensive Plan designates beyond the current extent of planned City development. The section places them outside the Central Urban Service Area and without current access to municipal sanitary sewer and water service, and it names woodlots, meadows and active farming operations as the character the district protects. A second purpose is local food: the district encourages community and market gardens and other small-scale agricultural operations inside city limits.

Sec. 28.092(3) sets minimum dimensions, in feet unless noted, in two columns. Agricultural uses need a 5-acre lot, 300 feet of lot width, a 30-foot front yard, an 80-foot side yard and a 100-foot rear yard, with no height maximum and no lot coverage limit. All other uses need 10 acres, the same 300-foot width and the same yards, and they are capped at 2 stories or 35 feet and 5 percent lot coverage. Sec. 28.092(2) sends the list of allowed uses to Table 28G-1, where "P" marks a permitted use, "C" a conditional use and "Y" a use with specific requirements in Sec. 28.151.

That table has separate rows for animal husbandry, cultivation, intensive agriculture, community gardens, market gardens and the keeping of honeybees. The definitions in Sec. 28.211 draw the line between them: animal husbandry is raising animals at less than one animal unit per acre, intensive agriculture is one animal unit per acre or more or operations needing large investments in permanent structures, and cultivation covers field crops, tree farming and nursery operations. A market garden is land farmed to sell crops for profit, while a community garden grows food or flowers for personal or group use, consumption or donation.

Sec. 28.151 adds site rules. Beekeepers are held to six hives per zoning lot, 20 cubic feet per hive, 3 feet from a property line, 10 feet from a public sidewalk and 25 feet from a principal building next door, plus a 6-foot flyway barrier and a license under Sec. 9.53, MGO. A farm stand must be removable in its entirety, no larger than 300 square feet, and limited to one per premise.