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

LaPorte County's Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation chapter (Ch. 97) builds a right-to-farm style shield directly into land-use approvals rather than a standalone nuisance exemption. 04(J), whenever the Board of Zoning Appeals grants a variance for a new subdivision development on agriculturally zoned property, the developer must record an agricultural notice clause as a deed restriction binding all successive lot owners. That clause states the residence or subdivision sits in a predominantly agricultural area where farming operations, including animal feeding operations and other livestock operations, may be practiced nearby, and it forces every owner and successor in title to forgo the right to bring a claim against any agricultural operation in the area that has not been negligent.

04(I): if the BZA instead grants a variance reducing the odor setback for a non-farm residence near an existing or proposed CAFO, the party receiving that variance must accept a covenant acknowledging the surrounding land's agricultural use and agreeing that grantees and their successors are precluded from attempting to enjoin any farm operation within the CAFO's required setback because of resulting nuisances. 04(A), which sets minimum distances of 750 to 1,570 feet from non-farm residences depending on how many odor controls the operation installs. The county's Building Commission administers the pre-application permitting tied to these covenants, and the deed restrictions run with the land so they bind buyers who purchase lots long after the original variance was granted.