Montgomery County, VA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Section 10-21 sets the A-1 Agricultural District's purpose as preserving and enhancing the rural, low-density character and natural resources of the county's rural portions where agriculture, forest and open space uses predominate, while still accommodating limited low-density residential development not generally served by public water or wastewater systems. The district is meant to apply to land the comprehensive plan designates rural or resource stewardship. To qualify for inclusion, land must either already sit in the A-1 district as of the chapter's December 13, 1999 adoption date or fall within an area mapped rural or resource stewardship in the comprehensive plan, and it generally cannot already be served or planned for public water or sewer.

Creating a new A-1 district takes a minimum of ten acres of total contiguous land. Once zoned A-1, a property gets a long list of by-right agricultural, forestry and low-intensity residential uses, plus a sliding-scale density table (as few as zero additional lots under one acre, up to one extra lot per 20 acres above 130 acres) that caps how many lots a parent parcel can be split into, alongside the district's 20 percent building coverage cap, 40-foot front and rear yards, and 40-foot height limit.