Utah County, UT Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

06 creates Utah County's Agriculture Protection Area program under Utah Code Title 17, Chapter 81. 040 establishes a 5-member Agriculture Protection Area Advisory Board, appointed by the County Commission from the county's soil conservation district boards of supervisors, serving staggered 5-year terms without salary except mileage or expense reimbursement. 070 sets the local minimum size for a new agriculture protection area at 20 continuous acres in the unincorporated county, well above the 5-acre minimum the county sets for an industrial or critical infrastructure materials protection area under the same section.

The county allows a variance below the 20-acre minimum for land used in intensive livestock operations or fruit production, or for acreage that is contiguous to an existing protection area, including one lying in an incorporated city. 060 requires a complete written application, the filing fee set in the county's fee schedule (currently $500 for a new protection area, or $50 to add contiguous land to a proposed area), reimbursement of the county's notice-mailing costs, and an electronic mailing list of every property owner within 1,000 feet of the proposed area.

070 also confirms that creating a protection area does not change the land's eligibility for the Farmland Assessment Act's reduced property tax valuation under Utah Code Chapter 59-2, Part 5, which is determined solely under that separate act. The county adopts, rather than restates, the state's substantive review, hearing, and evaluation criteria in Utah Code Title 17, Chapter 81 for adding, amending, or removing protection area land.