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SF 494

A bill for an act prohibiting the regulation of certain residential gardens by state agencies and local governments.

2025-2026 Regular Session

Prohibits state, counties, and cities from banning individuals from establishing, maintaining, or marketing food from residential gardens, with limited exceptions.

Subcommittee recommends passage.
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WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · SF 494

Summary — SF 494 (Amendment S‑3043)

Title: A bill for an act prohibiting the regulation of certain residential gardens by state agencies and local governments

Purpose

SF 494 creates statutory protections for residential gardens and for individuals marketing food harvested from those gardens. The bill prohibits state agencies, counties, and cities from adopting or continuing regulations that bar individuals from establishing, maintaining, benefiting from, or marketing produce from residential gardens on property they own or lease, subject to enumerated exceptions.

Key provisions

  • Definition

    • “Marketing” is defined broadly to mean offering for sale or selling, including transfer, exchange, or barter, for consideration.

  • Prohibition on regulation

    • New Section 137H.6: A state agency or local government may not adopt or continue any rule, ordinance, or resolution that prohibits an individual from marketing food harvested from that individual’s residential garden. Any regulation in violation is void and unenforceable.
    • Amendments to Code sections 331.301 (counties) and 364.3 (cities) add that counties and cities shall not adopt or continue regulations that prohibit an individual from establishing, maintaining, or benefiting from a residential garden or from marketing garden food as provided in chapter 137H.

  • Applicability and exceptions (New Section 137H.7)
    The prohibition on regulating marketing does NOT apply to:

    1. Plants already regulated under section 137H.5 (specified regulated species).
    2. Public places where food is marketed by vendors (including farmers markets).
    3. Use of property owned/leased by someone other than the person marketing the garden food.
    4. Acts that constitute a public or private nuisance, trespass, or other offense.
    5. Marketing to children or persons adjudged incompetent.
    6. Garden food that is unwholesome or presents a clear public‑health danger.
    7. Garden food that is processed so its form or identity is altered.
    8. Garden food that is falsely advertised.
    9. Regulations that do not specifically target marketing of residential garden food even if they incidentally affect it.

  • Other clarifications in the reprinted bill text

    • “Residential property” was treated as property with up to two family dwelling units.
    • Protections for gardens originally required that gardens produce mainly edible plants and be primarily for the benefit of the owner/household; several existing state regulations (e.g., seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, organic production, noxious weed control) and situations (easements, traffic obstructions, plants producing controlled substances) remain applicable.

Who is affected

  • Primary: homeowners and residential lessees who cultivate gardens and who wish to market or otherwise transfer garden‑harvested food.
  • Secondary: city and county governments and state agencies (which are restricted from regulating covered marketing activities), public health and agricultural regulators (still retain authority in enumerated exceptions), neighbors (through nuisance/trespass rules), and businesses/markets (farmers markets explicitly excluded from the protection).

Procedural status / timeline

  • Introduced: March 4, 2025.
  • Amendment S‑3043 filed and adopted: March 24, 2025.
  • Passed Senate: March 24, 2025 (yeas 49, nays 0).
  • Referred to Local Government; Subcommittee (Zabner, Bloomingdale, Jones) met 04/01/2025 and recommended passage.
  • Current status: Subcommittee recommends passage.

Potential impacts / considerations

  • Expands an individual’s ability to market home‑grown produce by preempting local regulation, subject to public‑health and other enumerated limits.
  • Creates possible tension between preemption of local rules and the authority of state agencies on food safety, pesticides, seeds, and noxious weed control—many of which are expressly preserved in the bill’s reprinted text.
  • Broad definition of “marketing” (including barter) could affect informal exchanges and community‑based food sharing unless an exception applies (e.g., marketing to children, processed foods, false advertising).

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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