Blue Springs, MO Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Section 245.300 declares weeds over eight inches and noxious plants of any height on any lot, tract or parcel a nuisance subject to removal under Sections 245.310 and 245.320, but the same sentence carves out land zoned or used for agricultural use that is more than twenty-five feet from any occupied residential subdivision lot, or an undeveloped, non-agricultural-zoned tract that is one contiguous parcel over ten acres not split by a public roadway. That exemption is not unconditional: the proviso requires every area within twenty-five feet of a public roadway's pavement edge, or within twenty-five feet of a property line next to residential or commercial use, to still be kept under eight inches regardless of the parcel's agricultural status.

Sections 245.310 and 245.320, from which the exempted land is carved out, otherwise make it unlawful for any owner, lessee or occupant to let weeds exceed eight inches, and route non-exempt violations through a Codes Administrator hearing, an abatement order, and a special tax bill if the owner doesn't comply. This narrow buffer-and-acreage exemption inside the weed nuisance ordinance is the only agricultural nuisance carve-out found in the reviewed chapters; the code does not contain a freestanding right-to-farm statute shielding farm operations generally from odor, noise or dust nuisance complaints.