Relating to clarifying the Right to Farm Act relating to residential agricultural operations and the protection of agriculture
HB 2454 clarifies protections for small-scale urban farming operations in West Virginia. It defines "agricultural residential land" as residential property used for limited urban agriculture, including keeping up to six chickens or maintaining apiaries for personal use or selling non-hazardous food. The bill prevents lawsuits against these operations unless the complainant already occupied adjacent land before the farming began. It also preempts local ordinances that conflict with agricultural activities on such land, ensuring state law supersedes conflicting municipal rules. This directly affects homeowners in towns and cities who engage in small-scale food production on their residential property.
Bill status
in committee
1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Feb 17, 2025
Last action Feb 17, 2025
Floor votes
How they voted
No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
5
Key actions
0
Committee
3
Feb 17, 2025
Committee
To House Agriculture, Commerce and Tourism
lower
Feb 17, 2025
Committee
To House Government Organization
lower
Feb 17, 2025
Introduced
Introduced in House
lower
Feb 17, 2025
Committee
To Government Organization
lower
1 primary · 8 co-sponsors
Sponsors
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