Tiffany's client, Mr.& Mrs.MacBee, wants to purchase a property as their new investment. They are contemplating whether to expand this property to a bigger footprint.
Dear Tiffany,
Thank you for taking me out. Today is my first time trying the McValue menu, and it was tasty!
I am glad you read my guides and have questions about them. From my point of view, being skeptical is a good thing, as the word "believe" often doesn't require much to look for evidence.
Your first question was regarding [Agriculture Development], which is covered in volume 5: Protect Nature and Enhance the Environment. You read about the "Image above table shows the minimum lot size for each zone. "Farming" use is permitted in the....zones, which parcels are all greater than 8000 square feet," and you have no clue where that conclusion (8000 square feet) came from. I apologize that my thoughts often jumped around and omitted the steps necessary to express the logic clearly.
That conclusion was based on the "Farming" and "Urban Farming" uses. If you look up the Use Table (sec. 3.1.6), you will see that "Farming" is permitted throughout most rural and peri-urban areas. It covers zones such as agriculture, rural residential, and residential-detached (Fig. 1). "Urban farming" is limited to the peri-urban or urban area (Fig. 1). The use can be applied to residential and various types of mixed-use zones. If you are interested in growing your agritourism business where you reside, then consider maintaining your house no more than 10% of your entire lot. That is because, in either category you choose, the maximum footprint for a total structure that runs your business is limited to 10% of the total parcel (see sec 3.2.6 Farming- F and sec 3.2.9 Urban Farming- 4).
As long as human bodies don't evolve too much as we've seen ourselves in the past two thousand years, in general, 800 to 850 square feet is enough for a good quality interior environment, which can accomondate at least a living room, a dining room for four, a fully equipped kitchen, a minimum 10x10 room, a bathroom with a tub and perhaps a small porch or balcony.
A possibility: An 770-870 square feet, farmhouse floor plan for Mr and Mrs MacBee. Plan on the right is an option of only one level, plean on the left is option of two levels with 1600 total square feet (with a stair case at the ground level)
And what do I mean by "good quality"? While various people have their ideal of what constitutes quality of life, 'the good quality' here means your home structure has a well-ventilated interior that can penetrate necessary natural sunlight (see IBC Chapter 12: Interior Environment). In other words, if the total footprint of your home structure is more than 10% of your lot, you might consider operating another kind of business rather than agritourism.