Buying Land in Audubon County, Iowa

Zoning: a standard Chapter 21 ordinance, recently updated

Audubon County's Planning & Zoning Department administers the county's own Chapter 21 Zoning Ordinance -- known formally as "The Zoning Ordinance of Audubon County, Iowa" -- for unincorporated land, with the current version updated in 2023. It covers standard zoning-ordinance ground: district boundaries, lot definitions (including "lot of record"), and variance procedures, with variances authorized only for structure height and lot/yard/open-space area and size. Applicants are responsible for reviewing the current ordinance and zoning map for their parcel's setback and district requirements before submitting a permit application, and permits are handled through the county attorney's office in the town of Audubon.

Septic and wells: a Guthrie County contract, same as Adair County

Audubon County does not staff its own environmental health office. Since 1992, its Board of Supervisors has contracted with Guthrie County to operate the program covering septic systems and private wells, along with radon awareness, unsafe-dwelling enforcement, animal-bite and rabies response, and swimming pool, tanning bed, and tattoo-parlor inspections. For a land buyer, the practical effect is the same as in neighboring Adair County: septic and well permitting follows Iowa's statewide process (percolation test, permit, pre-backfill inspection, described on our Iowa state page), but the office handling it sits in Guthrie Center rather than in the town of Audubon -- plan for that when scheduling.

Wind power: a major project already built here

Audubon County sits inside one of Iowa's most active wind-development corridors -- NextEra Energy's roughly 300-megawatt, two-phase Heartland Divide Wind Farm sits near the city of Audubon, and MidAmerican has installed aircraft-detection lighting on turbines spanning this and three neighboring counties. See our dedicated wind and solar leasing page for the phase-by-phase build-out and what to check on a turbine-adjacent parcel before you buy.

Roads, land values, and where zoning appeals actually go

Audubon County's Secondary Roads Department, run by the elected County Engineer, maintains roughly 760 miles of road and 215 bridges across the county -- a fairly typical rural secondary-road network, but worth confirming directly if a specific parcel's access depends on an unpaved road, since maintenance priority and winter plowing frequency can vary by road classification. Farmland values here run close to the state average: the 2025 ISU Land Value Survey put Audubon County's average at $11,956 per acre, up 2.4% from 2024 and slightly above Iowa's statewide average of $11,549 -- notably higher than several of its southwest Iowa neighbors, including Adair and Adams Counties.

Zoning permit applications and administration are handled out of the Audubon County Attorney's office (318 Leroy St., Audubon; 712-634-0110), not a standalone planning department building -- confirm that's still the current arrangement before mailing or dropping off an application. Any request that falls outside what the Chapter 21 ordinance permits outright -- a variance, a special exception, or an appeal of a zoning administrator decision -- goes to the county's Board of Adjustment, which under Iowa law is limited to exactly those three functions.