Howard County, MD Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

111, the Howard County Right-To-Farm Act (Bill No. 22, 1989), covers agriculture, apiaries, horticulture, orchards, agricultural nurseries, viticulture, aquaculture, silviculture, and animal and poultry husbandry, and it lets an agricultural operation run around the clock without limitation as to hours. Protected activities include transporting agricultural products, applying fertilizer, soil amendments, pesticides and manure, and operating farm machinery and equipment. In the Rural Conservation and Rural Residential zoning districts, and on any parcel carrying an agricultural use assessment from the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, a farm cannot legally be declared a public or private nuisance, and a neighbor cannot sue over interference with the use of their property, so long as the operation either predates the neighbor's change in land use, or has been running unchanged for at least a year without having been a nuisance, and is conducted according to generally accepted agricultural management practices.

The protection has real limits: it does not cover an operation that violates federal, state, or local health, fire prevention, or zoning requirements, does not stop a government agency from enforcing air or water quality standards, and does not protect an operation run negligently. Before filing suit, a neighbor must first attempt mediation through the Maryland Agricultural Conflict Resolution Service within the Maryland Department of Agriculture. If a court finds the farm was not actually a nuisance and the lawsuit was brought in bad faith or without substantial justification, the court can order the plaintiff to pay the farm owner's litigation costs and reasonable attorney's fees.