Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Zoning Udo topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commissioners adopt UDO changes defining animal feeding operations and small‑scale agriculture
Summary
The board approved a Unified Development Ordinance text amendment (Resolution 2026‑R‑5) that adds definitions and development standards for animal feeding operations and creates a 'diversified small scale agriculture' category, with setbacks and thresholds recommended by the planning commission.
DeKalb County commissioners voted unanimously May 26 to adopt a text amendment to the county’s Unified Development Ordinance that adds definitions for animal feeding operations and creates a new category called "diversified small scale agriculture."
Planning staff told the board the planning commission had recommended the amendment after reviewing thresholds and development standards. Under the change, uses below the IDEM confined feeding thresholds and those intended for household, education or personal self‑sufficiency—what staff described as the former 'hobby farming'—would be recast as diversified small scale agriculture and listed among permitted uses in agricultural districts.
The standards discussed include minimum setbacks (a 100‑foot minimum from property lines and a 300‑foot separation from adjacent residential zoning districts in some cases) and animal thresholds varying by species. "For cattle and calves it’d be 25 to 299; for swine or small ruminants 50 to 599; poultry 100 to 29,999," a planning presenter said in a summary for commissioners. The planning commission also recommended additional forthcoming standards on manure management and buffer strips.
A motion to accept the text amendment as Resolution 2026‑R‑5 carried 3‑0. The county attorney said the change likely does not require a second and third reading because it is a zoning text amendment and does not appropriate money.
The board said committee work will continue on technical standards, including manure handling and adjacency rules, before future ordinance refinements are proposed.
