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

Walla Walla County Code Section 17.12.040(A) establishes the Primary Agriculture district as land of long-term commercial significance and states the district's purpose is to maintain the viability of both irrigated and non-irrigated resource lands of that significance. Uses in the PA-40 district are required to be distinctive of the agricultural sector, with natural resource-related industries treated as priority compatible uses; the code also permits limited outdoor recreation and agricultural or non-agricultural accessory uses and activities that support, promote, or sustain agricultural operations and production, so long as those accessory activities are consistent with RCW 36.70A.177, the state's agricultural accessory-use statute.

Residences are allowed in the district, but the code states that clustering development to preserve large tracts of resource land is the preferred method of residential development, rather than scattering homes across the farmland. This structure lets Community Development evaluate any proposed non-farm use in a PA-40 district against the district's stated purpose under Section 17.12.040 before it reaches the permitted-use tables in Chapter 17.16.014, giving farmland a zoning-based layer of protection that sits alongside, and is separate from, the county's Chapter 8.40 right-to-farm ordinance.

Because the designation itself signals long-term commercial agricultural significance rather than a temporary holding pattern, rezoning PA-40 land to a nonagricultural district requires showing the land no longer meets that long-term significance standard, not merely that a landowner wants a different use.