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

Chapter 124's Agricultural/Estate District (AE), created by § 124.23, is Weston's only zoning category expressly built to protect agricultural land use, tying the district to the agricultural designation in the City's certified Future Land Use Element. Section 124.23(B) operates as a closed list: no building, structure, land, or water may be used 'for other than one or more of the following specified Uses.' Alongside single-family dwellings and public buildings, the permitted list affirmatively covers groves, produce farms, truck gardens, horticultural farming, botanical gardens, floriculture, nurseries, sod farms, crop raising, hydroponic gardens, greenhouses, forestry, and beekeeping, with animal keeping allowed only as 'incidental and accessory' to those uses.

Separately, § 124.23(B)(4) permits cattle or stock grazing and dairy farming but expressly excludes hog raising, and § 124.23(B)(5) permits raising fish. Driveways or access roads serving property in another zoning district are also allowed under § 124.23(B)(6), and accessory uses and structures are permitted under § 124.23(B)(7). Communication towers already built and operating before October 5, 1998 keep legal nonconforming status under § 124.23(C). Beyond the by-right list, § 124.23(D) allows stables, and animal hospitals, veterinary clinics, kennels, and animal boarding, only as special exceptions requiring City Commission approval at a public hearing.

Any use not on the § 124.23(B) list or approved as a § 124.23(D) special exception is prohibited on AE-zoned land under the Code's citywide default rule.