Memphis, TN Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

The CA District "is intended to conserve agricultural land and undeveloped natural amenities while preventing the encroachment of incompatible land uses on farm land and other undeveloped areas. The types, area and intensity of land uses in this district are designed to encourage and protect agricultural uses and the conservation of undeveloped areas" (UDC Section 2.2.1(D)). The code makes CA the fallback zoning: "Any area not shown on the Zoning Map as being included in any such district shall be classified in the CA District," and land deannexed from Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Lakeland or Millington, or state or federal property divested outside an incorporated Shelby County municipality, is likewise CA by default "unless an application has been made and approved by the appropriate governing body of a higher classification prior to such deannexation" (Section 2.4.1(B)). Because CA is the default for unincorporated county land but can also be mapped inside Memphis city limits, this is a joint-jurisdiction protection, not a city-only or county-only rule.

Article 2's Open Use Standards back the district with working-farm carve-outs. "Roosters are prohibited except in the Conservation Agriculture (CA) District," and the requirement that chickens stay in a securely enclosed pen at all times does not apply there either (Section 2.6.5). Beekeepers elsewhere are capped at eight colonies per parcel regardless of size, but in CA, "regardless of parcel size, where all hives are situated at least 200 feet in any direction from all property lines of the tract on which the apiary is situated there shall be no limit to the number of colonies" (Section 2.6.5(F)(3)(e)). Accessory farm structures in CA are also freed from the 75% floor-area cap that binds other districts and may reach 1.5 times the principal structure's height instead of matching it (Section 2.7).