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

The Portage County Zoning ordinance, Sec. 7.1.3(4), sets out the intent of the A1 Exclusive Agricultural District: preserve productive farmlands (including nonproductive parcels where necessary to hold large blocks together), maintain agriculture as a major component of the county's economy, minimize conflicts between farm and nonfarm activities, avoid urban sprawl and its public costs, allow farmers to participate in the working lands initiative, and allow farm-related housing plus limited nonfarm housing at very low densities, all while complying with Wis. Stats. ch. 91 (the state's farmland preservation law).

Under Sec. 7.1.1, the county's 18 zoning districts, A1 among them, apply only within the towns that have adopted county zoning: Alban, Almond, Amherst, Belmont, Buena Vista, Carson, Dewey, Eau Pleine, Hull, Lanark, Linwood, New Hope, Plover, Sharon and Stockton. A1 permits agricultural uses such as beekeeping, cranberry production, dairy farming, floriculture, feedlots, poultry and egg production, livestock raising, orchards, and noncommercial stables, reflecting the district's working-lands purpose. Cities and villages such as Stevens Point and Plover zone themselves and are not governed by this county district.

The County Board of Supervisors adopted the zoning ordinance under authority of Wis. Stats. §§ 59.69, 59.692 and 59.694, administered by the county's Planning and Zoning Department, with special exception uses requiring Board of Adjustment approval after public hearing.