Bannock County, ID Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Section 17.52.330(A) of the Bannock County Code declares that all farms and ranches already operating on the effective date of the county's zoning ordinance are permitted uses, meaning zoning cannot force out an agricultural operation that predates the code. That protection is not unconditional: the same subsection makes clear that all regulations in Title 17 and other county ordinances still apply to any change in the farming or ranching operation that makes it more intensive, and the planning director decides whether a given change counts as a minor intensification, requiring only a zoning permit, or a major one, requiring a conditional use permit.

Subsection B lets a commercial farm run accessory uses for treating, storing or processing what it grows or raises, as long as those accessory activities stay secondary to the primary agricultural use. Subsection C gives the board of county commissioners authority to require a conditional use permit for a farm operation outside the agricultural zoning district in two circumstances: first, when a nuisance on the farm sits within two hundred feet of any property line and could harm living conditions through noise, odor, vibration or safety hazards, a circumstance the code expressly ties to the Idaho Right to Farm Act; and second, when the farming operation becomes so intensive, through compounding, processing or packaging for wholesale or retail trade, or through excessive trucking, that it functions as a permanent industrial-type use rather than an ordinary farm that could be shut down like a typical farming operation. Setback and other zoning requirements apply to farm operations exactly as they do to other development in the county.