940 Schoeneck Rd, Ephrata, PA 17522

Agricultural District

The A-1 - Agricultural District seeks to promote the continuation and preservation of agricultural activities within the area of West Cocalico Township having the most productive agricultural soils. Approximately eighty-five percent of the more than five-thousand acres of this District contains prime agricultural soils identified by the Soil Survey of Lancaster County Pennsylvania as being Class I and 11 agricultural soils. This District is established to protect these soils and stabilize the Township's viable agricultural economy by eliminating land uses not compatible with agriculture and allowing for on-farm occupations to provide supplemental income to the Township s farmers in residence. Residential uses are limited and any future inhabitants in this district may be subject to some common characteristics of agriculture which are sometimes regarded as objectionable, including but not limited to odor, dust, night, holiday, early morning and weekend operations, noise, heavy vehicle use of roads, the storage and disposal of manure, the application of fertilizers, herbicides, etc. Residents, owners, and users of property in this district should accept these factors as normal and unavoidable characteristics of an agricultural area and are hereby put on official notice that Section 4 of the Pennsylvania Act 133 of 1982, referred to as The Right to Farm Law, may bar them from obtaining a legal judgment against such normal agricultural operations. Further, it is the intent of the Township for these provisions to comply with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania s Acre Agriculture, Communities, and Rural Environment legislation. Should a successful challenge to this ordinance be tiled under the Acre legislation, only that portion of these provisions found to be in conflict with Acre will be deleted and no other part of these provisions will be affected.