Carteret County, NC Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Section 1007, titled 'Bona fide farms exempt,' states that the zoning ordinance 'shall in no way regulate, restrict, prohibit or otherwise deter any bona fide farm and its related uses,' while adding that nonfarm uses on a farm remain subject to the ordinance. The protected term, 'bona fide farm,' is defined in Section 1102 as any tract of land containing at least three acres used for dairying or the raising of agricultural products, forest products, domestic livestock, or poultry, and the definition allows the farm to include on-site facilities for selling what it produces.

The definition specifically carves out three categories that do not count as a protected bona fide farm: commercial poultry and swine production, cattle feed lots, and the production of fur-bearing animals; those operations remain subject to the zoning ordinance's use and district standards even though they involve agriculture. Because the exemption in Section 1007 works together with the jurisdictional exclusion in Section 1005, a qualifying farm in Down East, Harkers Island, or any other unincorporated part of the county needs no zoning permit, special use permit, or Board of Adjustment variance for its farming operations, though any structure or activity that is not itself agricultural, such as a retail shop unconnected to the farm's own products, still has to meet the standards of the district in which the farm sits.