Spokane County proposes agritourism rules; staff recommends conditional use permits to protect farmland
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Summary
County planning staff proposed allowing agritourism on actively operated farms with safeguards — including conditional use permits, public hearings and criteria to prevent loss of agricultural productivity — and invited comments on thresholds and conditions.
Presenter, Spokane County Planning, described proposed agritourism policies aimed at expanding farm-based tourism while protecting agricultural function.
Staff highlighted Greenbluff as a high‑value agritourism area and said many local farms already derive substantial revenue from agritourism activities such as farm markets, events and weddings. Presenter said agritourism should be accessory to active commercial farming: new uses must be incidental to farm operations and the site must contain active commercial farming or ranching.
As a policy measure, staff proposed that agritourism activities be subject to conditional use permits so county planners and neighbors can evaluate traffic, noise, sanitation, emergency/fire protection and other impacts and allow for a public hearing. Presenter also said staff will recommend criteria to ensure "no net loss of agricultural productivity" and discussed the possibility of setting an income benchmark (a percentage of farm revenue to remain from agricultural production) though the exact percentage was not specified.
"Agritourism requires a conditional use permit," Presenter said, explaining that permits allow impacts to be reviewed and neighbors to be heard.
Presenter said staff will present draft policies to the planning commission at the end of the month and encouraged feedback via the posted presentation and written comments; no changes to existing prime-ag land designations were proposed during the session, and the Growth Management Act remains a constraint on de‑designation of resource lands.
The session included public questions about wildlife corridors and small-business support but no votes or formal policy adoptions; next formal steps are TAC review, planning commission hearings and public comment leading toward a board decision later in 2026.
