Yolo County, CA Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Under Sec. 102(a), no agricultural activity, operation, or facility conducted for commercial purposes on Agricultural Land, and run consistent with proper and accepted farming customs in the same locality, can become a nuisance, private or public, due to a changed condition in the surrounding area, once it has operated more than three years without being a nuisance when it began. The protection does not apply if the operation blocks free passage of a navigable lake, river, bay, stream, canal, basin, or a public park, square, street, or highway (Sec.

102(b)), and it does not override nuisance definitions in the Health and Safety Code, Fish and Game Code, Food and Agricultural Code, or Water Code Division 7 (Sec. 102(c)). Before anyone can sue claiming an agricultural operation interfered with private property or personal well-being, Sec. 102(d) requires the complaint first go to the agricultural grievance committee described in Sec. 104, or that a decision be sought but not rendered within the time limits set there; this does not stop a public agency from enforcing other laws directly.

The grievance committee has five Board of Supervisors appointees: two engaged in commercial agriculture, two with no financial interest in agricultural property, and one with expertise in agricultural production practices, and the Yolo County Agricultural Commissioner serves as its secretary. A dispute must be submitted within 30 days of the incident or of the complaining party becoming aware of it; the committee must hold a meeting within 25 days and issue a written decision within 5 days of that meeting. Sec. 103 makes this chapter take precedence over any conflicting county ordinance or resolution. Both sections trace to Ord. 1133, effective January 2, 1992.