Farmland in Cumberland County: The Agricultural Zone and the ACE Program

The Agricultural Zone: fourteen townships, one area-based method

Of Cumberland County's twenty-two townships, fourteen have adopted the county's standard Agricultural Zone, developed by the county's Agricultural Land Preservation Board working with the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission (two other townships instead use a stricter Agricultural Preservation Zoning approach, and the rest use their own separate zoning). The standard Ag Zone uses what's called an area-based subdivision method: rather than a flat per-acre density limit, it specifies how many non-farm dwellings a given original tract size can support -- for example, a tract in the roughly 5-15 acre range may be permitted only one or two non-farm lots -- and requires those new dwellings to be sited on small building lots, generally in the 1-2 acre range, specifically so the bulk of the original tract stays in active agricultural use rather than being spread thin across large-lot "ranchette" development.

For a buyer, this cuts two ways depending on what you're looking for. If you're buying a working farm in one of these fourteen townships with an eye toward eventually carving off a lot or two for a child's homesite or a sale, the Ag Zone's area-based formula -- not a simple minimum-lot-size zoning rule -- determines how many non-farm lots the tract can yield and how small they must be. If you're buying specifically for a rural homesite and hoping for a large residential lot, the Ag Zone's small-lot requirement means you may end up on a 1-2 acre parcel carved from a larger farm rather than the multi-acre "gentleman's farm" lot common in less agriculturally-protected counties. Either way, confirm directly with the specific township and the county's Agricultural Land Preservation Board (which helped write these zones) how the area-based formula applies to a specific tract's size before assuming a particular subdivision outcome.

The ACE program: 25,000 acres preserved, and a real October 2026 deadline

Separately from zoning, Cumberland County's Agricultural Conservation Easement (ACE) program -- overseen by the same Agricultural Land Preservation Board -- purchases permanent conservation easements from willing farm owners, using a combination of county, state, federal, and local funds, restricting the land to agricultural use in perpetuity regardless of future ownership. In September 2025, the county celebrated a documented milestone: 25,000 acres preserved across more than 230 farms. That's a genuinely substantial, still-growing share of the county's roughly 170,000 agricultural acres, and it means a meaningful number of Cumberland County farm parcels already carry a permanent, recorded development restriction that survives any sale.

For a landowner or buyer weighing whether to apply, the program has a real, dated application cycle: applications for the 2027 round of easement selections are due October 31, 2026. That's a specific, actionable planning point -- not a vague "contact the county sometime" -- for anyone who owns or is buying a qualifying farm and wants to be considered for the next selection round rather than waiting for the following year's cycle.

What to check before buying farmland in Cumberland County

1. Confirm whether the specific township is one of the fourteen using the standard Agricultural Zone, one of the two using stricter Agricultural Preservation Zoning, or neither -- the area-based subdivision math differs meaningfully between them.
2. If you're buying with any intent to eventually subdivide a non-farm lot, ask the county Agricultural Land Preservation Board or the township directly how the Ag Zone's area-based formula applies to the specific tract size in question, since it is not a simple flat minimum-lot-size rule.
3. Check the Recorder of Deeds for any existing recorded ACE easement on a specific parcel -- a farm already enrolled carries a permanent restriction that binds every future owner, independent of what current zoning otherwise allows.
4. If you own or are buying a qualifying working farm and want to be considered for the ACE program, note the October 31, 2026 deadline for the 2027 selection round and contact the Agricultural Land Preservation Board well before then, since applications for a missed cycle generally roll to the following year.