Yuba City, CA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Article 25 of the zoning chapter creates the Agricultural Holding (AH) District "to be applied on an interim basis to rural or undeveloped areas where it is apparent that more intensive suburban or urban development is imminent or will occur when public services become available," per Sec. 8-5.2501. The district lets a landowner keep farming a parcel while it waits for city utilities and a General Plan-consistent subdivision, rather than forcing an immediate rezone to residential or commercial use.

Sec. 8-5.2502 permits horticultural and truck gardening with no on-site sales, animal husbandry and livestock farming, day care homes, one-family residences, and accessory dwelling units outright, while agricultural processing, bed and breakfast inns and heliports need a Use Permit under Sec. 8-5.7003. Animal husbandry is capped at one large animal per half-acre of lot area over the first acre, and no more than 12 hen chickens, rabbits or similar small creatures per half-acre, per footnote (5) to the uses table.

Sec. 8-5.2503 sets a 10-acre minimum lot, 300-foot minimum lot width, and a 3-story/35-foot height cap. Front and street-side yards run 55 feet from the road centerline where no future plan line is set (15 feet where one is established, with garages pulled back 20 feet), and the rear yard is 25 feet or 20% of lot depth, whichever is less.

Yuba City's code does not carry a standalone right-to-farm nuisance-immunity ordinance protecting agricultural operations from neighbor complaints; that framework, where it exists, runs through Sutter County's ordinances and state Right to Farm law for the agricultural land surrounding the city, not through this municipal code.