Valencia County, NM Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

The Agricultural Preservation (AP) District, printed at Code § 154.090, exists to keep the county's irrigated farmland and grazing land in agricultural use while still allowing one home per parcel. Zoning Department review is not required for the two baseline permitted uses: a single dwelling on a lot of at least 5 net acres, and agricultural activity including crop cultivation, harvesting, and livestock breeding and management. A home-based occupation is also permitted outright, subject to the home-occupation standards of § 154.168. Anyone who wants to keep the parcel productive but add a commercial operation such as a dairy or a feedlot, or run a home occupation that brings clients or customers onto the property, has to go through the Type B conditional-use process in § 154.076, meeting the review criteria in §§ 154.035 through 154.040.

Utility facilities other than energy-generation plants also fall into that conditional category, subject to site design review. The district's dimensional standards keep new construction consistent with the low-density character the AP zone protects: the minimum parcel size for any permitted or conditional use is 5 acres, dwellings cannot exceed 35 feet in height, and other structures top out at 45 feet. Front yards need a 30-foot setback and side and rear yards need 15 feet. Uses that predate the current zoning are governed by the nonconforming-use rules in § 154.059 rather than being forced into immediate compliance.