Spotsylvania County, VA Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Chapter 13A, adopted by Ord. No. 13A-1 on April 22, 2002, states its purpose in Sec. 13A-2: to support continued agricultural and forestal operations, recognizing that non-farm development moving into farming areas creates nuisance complaints that can force farms to curtail or abandon operations. The operative nuisance shield sits in Sec. 13A-3: no commercial agricultural or forestal activity, operation, or facility conducted consistently with proper and accepted customs and standards and with the county code becomes a public or private nuisance if it was not already a nuisance when the activity began.

Sec. 13A-4 makes the program available to all qualifying land in the county except land owned or controlled by the United States or the Commonwealth of Virginia. Sec. 13A-26 defines 'agricultural and forestal operations' by reference to the Virginia Right to Farm Act, covering the bona fide production of crops, animals, or fowl and the production and harvest of timber, but excluding above-ground application or storage of sewage sludge. Article III backs the nuisance shield with disclosure: Sec. 13A-40 requires the county to mail an annual disclosure statement with every property owner's tax bill warning that nearby farming may bring noise, odors, dust, and machinery operation at any hour, and requires a real estate transfer disclosure statement to be signed by the buyer and recorded with the deed whenever farmland-adjacent property changes hands.