Rock Island County, IL Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

678 of the Rock Island County Code of Ordinances, titled the County Rural Living Contract, is a codified disclosure that puts prospective rural buyers on notice that established agricultural operations are protected, not a nuisance the county will police. ' It warns that farmers 'work around the clock' during planting and harvest, that dust, smoke from ditch and field burning, and chemical drift from fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides applied by ground vehicle or aircraft are ordinary parts of the agricultural work environment, and that livestock being herded on county roads have the right-of-way, which drivers must yield to.

The contract also flags that farm animals can be dangerous and that neighbors, not the farmer, bear responsibility for keeping children and pets away from pastures and pens. A signature block at the end has the buyer acknowledge, 'I/we have read the above and not only understand the items mentions, but understand the more general concept of rural living, and I/we hereby agree to live according to these concepts,' with space for the parcel number and township. The county states the contract does not divest it of responsibility to constituents, but is meant to make clear upfront what county government will and will not do about ordinary farm impacts.

Because this is a zoning-chapter disclosure rather than a separate nuisance-immunity statute, it functions as the county's local right-to-farm protection: it discourages nuisance complaints against agricultural operations by documenting that buyers were warned before purchasing rural, unincorporated land.