Clovis, CA Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)
Key Facts
- Minimum operation period
- More than 3 years
- Governing state statute
- Cal. Civil Code Section 3482.5
- Excluded conduct
- Blocking public parks, streets, highways
- Not overridden by policy
- Fish and Game, Food and Agric., Health and Safety Codes
- Companion rule
- Sec. 9.40.170(B) subdivision covenant
Summary
Clovis Municipal Code Section 9.40.170(A) declares it City policy to shield commercial agricultural operations from nuisance claims once they have run for more than three years without being a nuisance when they began, tracking California Civil Code Section 3482.5. The protection does not cover operations that block public roads, parks, or waterways.
1. It is the declared policy of the City of Clovis to preserve, protect, and encourage development of its agricultural land consistent with the California Civil Code Section 3482.5 which provides that no agricultural activity, operation, or facility, or appurtenances thereof, conducted or maintained for commercial purposes, and in a manner consistent with proper and accepted customs and standards, as established and followed by similar agricultural operations in the same locality, shall be or become a nuisance, private or public, due to any changed condition in or about the locality, after it has been in operation for more than three (3) years if it was not a nuisance at the time it began. 2. This policy applies to normally acceptable agricultural operations... and shall not apply if the agricultural activity, operation, facility, or appurtenances thereof obstruct the free passage or use, in the customary manner, of any public park, square, street, or highway.
Full Breakdown
5. Under that policy, no agricultural activity, operation, or facility conducted or maintained for commercial purposes, and run in a manner consistent with proper and accepted customs and standards followed by similar operations in the same locality, can be treated as a nuisance, private or public, because of a changed condition in the surrounding area, so long as the operation has been running for more than three years and was not a nuisance when it began. The policy has real limits. 5, and it does not apply if the operation obstructs the free passage or customary use of any public park, square, street, or highway.
It also does not override or invalidate any nuisance provision in the Fish and Game Code, the Food and Agricultural Code, the Health and Safety Code, or Water Code Division 7 (starting at Section 13000) if the operation independently qualifies as a nuisance under those statutes. In practice, this section works as a defense a farm operator can raise against neighbors' nuisance complaints once the three-year and no-original-nuisance conditions are met, while subsection (B) of the same section separately requires a recorded covenant when new subdivisions are built near agriculturally zoned land.
Violations & Fines
This section functions as a legal shield rather than a permit requirement, so there is no standalone penalty for a farm operator; its practical effect is defeating a private or public nuisance claim once the three-year, no-original-nuisance test is met. The protection falls away, and normal nuisance remedies apply, if the operation blocks a public road, park, or waterway, or if it independently violates the Fish and Game Code, Food and Agricultural Code, Health and Safety Code, or Water Code Division 7.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Clovis protect farms from nuisance lawsuits by new neighbors?
Is Clovis's right-to-farm protection unlimited?
What California law does the Clovis right-to-farm policy rely on?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Clovis
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