Tracy Municipal Code Art. 2 Agricultural Operations and the Right to Farm

(a) It is declared a statement of policy of this City to preserve and protect existing agricultural operations consistent with Land Use Policy 8.5 of the Tracy Urban Management Plan/General Plan 1993, within the incorporated City. Further, it is the purpose of this chapter to declare farming operations not to be a nuisance and to recognize persons and/or entities right to farm. Consistent with this policy, California Civil Code 3482.5 (right to farm law) provides that an agricultural pursuit, as defined, maintained for commercial uses shall not be or become a nuisance due to a changed condition in a locality after such agricultural pursuit has been in operation for three (3) years.

(b) The City has determined that the use of real property for agricultural operations in the Tracy Planning Area, or which may be annexed into the incorporated City boundaries, is a priority use, and those inconveniences or discomforts arising from legally established agricultural activities or operations, as defined by City code or state law, shall not be or become a nuisance.

(c) Where nonagricultural land uses occur near or adjacent to agricultural areas, the agricultural operations frequently become the subjects of nuisance complaints due to the lack of information about such operations. It is the intent of this chapter to reduce the premature conversion of existing agricultural resources by clarifying the circumstances under which an agricultural operation may be considered a nuisance. This chapter is not in any way modifying or abridging state law as set out in California Civil Code, Health and Safety Code, Fish and Game Code, Food and Agriculture Code, Division 7 of the Water Code, or any other applicable provisions of state law relative to a nuisance. Instead, it is to be utilized only in the interpretation and enforcement of the provisions of this chapter and City regulations.

(Prior code § 10-7.201)

(a) No agricultural operation, or appurtenances thereof, conducted or maintained for commercial purposes, and in a manner consistent with the proper and accepted customs and standards as established and followed by similar agricultural operations in the same locality, shall be or become a nuisance, private or public, due to any changed condition in or about the locality. The above shall be the case provided that the agricultural operation has been in operation for more than three (3) years.

(b) Subsection (a) of this section shall not apply whenever a nuisance results from the negligent or improper handling of any such agricultural operation by person(s) or entities responsible for such operations, and if the agricultural operation obstructs free passage or use in the customary manner of any navigable lake, river, bay, stream, canal, basin or any public park, square, street or highway. Nothing in this chapter shall prevent anyone from complaining to any appropriate agency, or taking any other available remedy, concerning any unlawful or improper agricultural practice.

(Prior code § 10-7.202)

All discretionary development approvals administered by the City of Tracy Community Development Department for lands adjacent to an agricultural operation shall include a reference to this chapter. These discretionary development approvals shall include, but not be limited to, the approval of tentative and final maps for residential purposes. The reference to this chapter shall make it incumbent upon the individual or entity requesting a discretionary development approval to make a good faith effort to coordinate with the adjacent agricultural operator cropping patterns, harvesting, applications of herbicides and pesticides, and hours of farming operations with the expressed intent to reduce or eliminate the potential conflicts between agricultural and urban land uses.

(Prior code § 10-7.203)