Stanislaus County, CA Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

32 of the Stanislaus County Code declares it the county's policy to protect agricultural land because agricultural operations can become the subject of nuisance suits as nonfarm uses spread into farming areas. 030, Nuisance, states that no commercial agricultural activity, operation or facility shall be or become a nuisance, private or public, after the same has been in operation for more than three years if it was not a nuisance at the time it began, so long as the operation follows proper and accepted customs and standards of similar farms in the same locality.

020(B) makes clear the chapter does not modify state nuisance law under the Civil Code, Health and Safety Code, Fish and Game Code or Food and Agricultural Code; it only guides how county rules are interpreted. 040 requires a mandatory real estate transfer disclosure statement on transfers of one to four dwelling units near agricultural land, warning of noise, odors, dust, chemical spraying and machinery running around the clock. 050 requires the same right-to-farm notice to be recorded with the county clerk-recorder and imposed as a condition of approval on new parcel and subdivision maps adjacent to farmland. Disputes are meant to first go through the county's grievance committee, reachable through the Department of Planning and Community Development, before litigation.