Sarasota County, FL Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Section 124-70(a) of the Sarasota County Unified Development Code lists four Open Use base zoning districts, Open Use Conservation (OUC), Open Use Agricultural (OUA), Open Use Rural (OUR) and Open Use Estate (OUE), the county's designation for land kept in agricultural, rural or conservation use rather than intensive residential or commercial development. Under the county's general accessory-use standard in § 124-73(a), an accessory use or structure ordinarily must sit on the same lot as, and be clearly incidental to, an existing principal permitted use; a shed, barn or other outbuilding normally cannot exist on a vacant parcel with no house or other principal structure already on it.

Section 124-73(a)(7) creates one specific exception to that rule for agriculture: a barn or shade structure built to shelter animals in an Open Use district is allowed even when no principal use exists on the property. That carve-out lets a rural landowner erect a barn, run-in shed or livestock shade structure on raw OUA or OUR land before building a house or any other principal structure, something the code otherwise forbids for every other accessory building in the county. Any such barn or shade structure still has to meet the applicable Open Use district's setback, height and lot standards under § 124-76, and the exception applies only within the Open Use districts, not in the county's Residential, Commercial or Industrial districts.