Jackson, TN Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Title 14, Chapter 5 of the Jackson Municipal Code (Erosion and Stormwater Control) requires a grading permit from the city engineer before any clearing, grading or land disturbance that increases stormwater runoff, with a fee set by the environmental advisory/appeals board under § 14-502. Section 14-503 carves out a single exemption: no grading permit is required for a "farm operation" as defined in the Tennessee Right to Farm Act, and the code's own state-law reference points to Tennessee Code Annotated § 43-26-101 et seq. as the source of that definition.

For everyone outside that exemption, § 14-504 has the city engineer draft grading rules that must go to the Jackson-Madison County Regional Planning Commission for approval, § 14-505 lets an aggrieved applicant appeal a permit denial or revocation to the environmental advisory/appeals board within 30 days, and § 14-506 lets that same board grant variances when strict enforcement would work a manifest injustice. The exemption is narrow: it removes farm operations from the city's grading-permit process under this chapter only, and does not touch separate building, zoning or stormwater-discharge requirements found elsewhere in the code.