Thurston County, WA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

08A creates the Long-Term Agriculture District (LTA), the county's strongest agricultural zoning designation. 010 states plainly that agriculture be the primary use in this district and lists conserving commercially significant farmland, protecting it from incompatible development, and encouraging owners to keep land in agricultural use among the chapter's purposes. 020 include agriculture, agricultural accessory uses, animal production, aquaculture, forest practices, and farm stands up to four hundred square feet, plus a formula for farm housing units tied to lot size, from one unit on a five-acre lot up to four units on a lot of sixty to eighty acres.

045 sets the ceiling on non-farm housing: the maximum density shall not exceed one unit per twenty acres, calculated after subtracting any submerged shoreline lands from the parcel. 035 push that further for agricultural-use lots, requiring a twenty-acre minimum for any lot with a single-family or farm residence and a five-acre minimum for a lot with no dwelling at all. 040 cap new buildings at thirty-five feet in height, require fifteen-foot side and twenty-five-foot rear yards for single-family residences, and hold hard-surface coverage to fifteen percent on lots of an acre and a half or larger. 54 rather than administrative site plan review.