New Braunfels, TX Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

9, titled 'Agricultural uses,' is a single short rule with an outsized effect on where farming and ranching can happen in the city: farms and ranches are permitted in residential and commercial districts provided that no obnoxious fertilizer is stored upon the premises and no obnoxious soil or fertilizer renovation is conducted thereon. Because the rule places farms and ranches in residential and commercial districts as a permitted use rather than requiring a special use permit or rezoning, a landowner does not need board of adjustment or planning commission approval to keep livestock or grow crops on residentially or commercially zoned land within city limits, so long as fertilizer storage and soil amendment work on the property stay within what the code treats as non-obnoxious.

2 use table, residential and commercial alike, meaning a barn or equipment storage building tied to an agricultural operation does not trigger the special use permit process that many other accessory structures require. Because the ordinance does not define 'obnoxious,' enforcement of that limiting clause falls to the planning director's interpretive authority under the chapter's general provisions, and any dispute over whether a particular fertilizer storage practice crosses that line can be appealed to the zoning board of adjustment.