Hamilton County, IN Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Hamilton County's unincorporated-area code defines "Right to Farm Act" as Indiana Code § 32-30-6-9 and builds that protection directly into its own nuisance-style enforcement ordinance. Section 36-9-30-34(d)(8) states plainly that the Act "restricts the types of nuisance actions that may be brought against a person engaged in an agricultural operation" and that the county's own ordinance "will not be enforced in a manner inconsistent with" it. That matters because this same section defines "nuisance" by cross-reference to IC 32-30-6-6 and empowers the county to cite property owners, seek fines and record liens over accumulations of junk or prohibited vehicles.

Without the carve-out, a working farm's equipment, farm trucks, farm wagons or an aging tractor left in a field could otherwise trip those same rules. Subsection (d)(1) supplies the operative exemption: a person lawfully engaged in an agricultural operation does not violate the ordinance for having a farm truck, farm wagon, an apparent inoperable vehicle, or an excess vehicle on the property, as long as the vehicle is used in the agricultural operation annually. An officer can accept a sworn statement establishing agricultural use as sufficient cause to apply the exemption; the county does not require a permit or inspection to claim it.

The protection runs only to the junk/vehicle ordinance itself; it does not immunize a farm from unrelated county permitting, drainage-board, or health-department requirements found elsewhere in the code.