Palm Beach Gardens, FL Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Chapter 34, Article II, Division 2, the city's fertilizer ordinance adopted by Ordinance No. 20, 2011 on January 5, 2012, regulates when, where, and how nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer may be applied to 'urban landscape,' defined in Section 34-34 as pervious residential, commercial, industrial, or institutional land planted with turf or horticultural plants, expressly excluding agricultural land as defined by Section 570.02, Florida Statutes. Section 34-43 confirms that exclusion by name: it lists three categories the fertilizer restrictions in Sections 34-37 through 34-42 do not reach, and the first is 'bona fide farm operations as defined in the Florida Right-to-Farm Act, Section 823.14, Florida Statutes,' the state law that shields agricultural operations from local nuisance ordinances.

The other two exemptions in the same section cover properties with grazing pastures not otherwise covered by the Right-to-Farm Act and land used for bona fide scientific research on fertilizer's effects on stormwater, water quality, agronomics, or horticulture. Because the city ordinance itself carves farm operations out rather than regulating them under a separate local standard, there is no Palm Beach Gardens-specific right-to-farm ordinance beyond this exemption clause: a working farm inside city limits is governed by the state statute the city's own code points to, not by an additional municipal layer.