Pender County, NC Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Section 4-24 sets the standards for creating a voluntary agricultural district: land must be engaged in agriculture as G.S. 106-581.1 defines it, and the county can actively encourage formation of districts through public information efforts run by the agricultural advisory board. Section 4-25 layers on the certification test for qualifying farmland itself: land must either follow natural-resources-conservation-service erosion-control practices where highly erodible soil exists, or be tied to a recorded conservation agreement under G.S. 121-35 lasting at least ten years and barring non-farm use, with an exception for carving out no more than three lots that still meet county zoning and subdivision rules.

Districts stay marked on maps at the register of deeds, the Planning and Community Development Department, the tax supervisor's office, the soil and water conservation district, and cooperative extension. If enough participants withdraw that the remaining acreage drops below the program minimum or the tract becomes non-contiguous, the district still survives as long as one qualifying farm remains in it. Developers of major subdivisions or master development plans under the unified development ordinance must show on their preliminary plans whether the project sits within a half aerial mile of a district, under section 4-30.

The county cannot expand a district into a designated growth corridor established after the program's effective date without Board of Commissioners approval, tying the agricultural-district map directly into the county's broader land-use planning under section 4-32.