Surry County, NC Right to Farm: Farm Nuisance Protection (2026)

Section 154.002-04 of the Surry County Code, adopted pursuant to G.S. § 160D-903, states that zoning regulations may not affect property used for bona fide farm purposes, though the exemption does not limit zoning regulation with respect to the use of farm property for non-farm purposes. Bona fide farm purposes include the production of crops, grains, fruits, vegetables, ornamental and flowering plants, dairy, livestock and poultry, and extend to existing or new residences built to the applicable residential building code and occupied by the farm's owner, lessee or operator, plus other buildings or structures that shelter or support the farm operation.

To document that a property qualifies, subsection (A) accepts any of four kinds of proof: a Department of Revenue farm sales-tax exemption certificate, a property tax listing showing present-use-value eligibility, the farm owner's or operator's Schedule F from a recent federal return, or a forest management plan. The protection is not permanent: under subsection (B), a structure loses its bona fide farm classification, and becomes subject to the county's ordinary zoning and development regulations, if the property fails to keep meeting the requirements for three straight years after the structure was first classified as farm use.

The section also folds in Goodness Grows in North Carolina products grown on land under a conservation agreement, and its definitions cross-reference the bona fide farm definition in §154.003-02. In practice, the exemption means the Surry County Planning and Development Department cannot require a zoning permit for ordinary farm production activity, though a farm operator adding a clearly non-farm use, such as a retail store unrelated to the farm, still needs to comply with the zoning ordinance for that separate use.