Ridgefield, CT Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Section 3.2 of the Zoning Regulations sorts residential land uses into three tiers: those permitted without any zoning permit, those permitted with a Zoning Permit from the Zoning Enforcement Officer (ZEO), and those requiring a Special Permit from the Planning and Zoning Commission. Agricultural uses sit in the top tier. Subsection 3.2.A.2 covers farming, forestry, truck gardening and nursery gardening, and extends the same by-right status to a farm stand, provided the produce and other agricultural products offered for sale were grown on the property itself; a stand reselling produce trucked in from elsewhere would fall outside the exemption.

The same subsection 3.2.A also exempts conservation and open-space uses (3.2.A.1), ramps or similar access structures for a residence (3.2.A.3, added by amendment 2011-007-A effective 4/1/11), and equestrian facilities (3.2.A.4), though the equestrian exemption is capped by the separate limits in Subsection 3.2.C.1, added by amendment 2011-011-A effective 4/8/11, above which a horse-keeping operation needs Commission approval instead. Because farming and farm stands need no Zoning Permit at all, an owner does not file plans with the ZEO or pay any permit fee for the farming use itself.

This puts Ridgefield's agricultural exemption a step ahead of the Home-Based Business tier in Section 3.3, which still requires at least a Zoning Permit. The exemption applies townwide, including in the RAAA, RAA, RA, R-20, SD R-20, R-10 and R-7.5 residential zones, since Section 3.2 sets the base residential use table before the district-specific dimensional standards in Section 3.5 layer on lot size and setback rules.