My home place is in the city limits on 9 acres with the border being the paved road across the front of the property. City ordinance says no livestock within the city limits. I had to apply for a variance to the city ordinance. It was not a big deal just writing a request letter, getting it notarized and presenting it to the city. They took it before the city council and had the cities lawyer look at it before approving it with some restriction like no pigs and not more than 30 animals. The public had 30 days to object.
There was a fee but it wasn't much but that was a long time ago.
Do a little research and ask some questions, maybe you will get lucky. Or just put one out there and see if anyone tells you different. Is there any livestock on other properties of the same size?
I'd be cautious/skeptical about trying to get a variance. I'm out in the country where we're zoned "ag protection district"... so ag is supposed to be protected, by ordinance,
from the negative impacts of OTHER interests TO AGRICULTURE, like residential, out here. In your district, RESIDENTIAL is intended to be protected
from other interests, like agriculture, or commercial, or manufacturing, etc. However, whenever I've applied for any kind of variance, here, or at my previous place, which was also zoned agricultural, you have had to be able to PROVE some kind of serious "hardship" that the restrictions that are in place are imposing upon you (and financial hardship DOES NOT qualify). Without an acceptable and REAL "hardship", the variance is
automatically a no go. The reason for this is so that they don't have individuals applying for variances all the time... to basically do something that the zoning restrictions that were put in place intended to prevent from happening, and thereby, nullifying the intent of the zoning district entirely.
This isn't what most people want to hear though, so the advice from the zoning/permitting guys will be, "Well, you can apply for a variance. Get your paperwork in order, file for the variance (for a fairly hefty fee), and see what they say." Invariably, the fee is a couple hundred bucks, which goes into the county/township kitty. And invariably, the variance is turned down, absent of some really realistic and serious "hardship". The county/town board takes all the heat for telling you no... and the zoning guy "was just doing his job, honestly telling you what your options were, and allowing you to pursue every plan of recourse that was available to you".
Personally, I AGREE with this (automatic denial of a variance request, absent of "real and serious hardship"), at least in the absence of elimination of "zoning districts" entirely, and then a court system that recognizes that an individuals personal property rights are sovereign. Zoning district ordinances have been put in place for a reason... to avoid the conflicts that inevitably arise when competing interests locate too closely to each other. There WAS a time when you could do with your property what you wanted... we lost that individual freedom a long time ago! (Unfortunately... we give away our rights in this country without realizing it like candy at a 4th of July parade!). People started to complain about what their neighbor was doing on his own property next door.... lawsuits happened..... everybody was mad.... and so to put an end to the insanity.... ZONING ORDINANCES came into being. In an ag protection district, the homeowner that builds a house in the ag district OUGHT TO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT, and SHOULD have NO RECOURSE, to complain about the neighbor who wants to build a cattle feedlot on his own ag protection district property next door! The ordinances were put in place to protect THE AG INTEREST
FROM the complaints/desires of the non-ag interest. Build a new house on your land out in the country if you want to, but realize that you're probably going to smell manure, and hear cattle and machinery and have some dust... and DON'T COME COMPLAINING TO THE TOWN BOARD TO PROTECT YOU WHEN THAT HAPPENS. Don't try to claim that the ag interests around you are "devaluing your property". And don't try to sue your neighbor over it. If you want "protection" from ag interests, then go build your house in a RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT! That's where you have that protection... and that's where that feedlot is not allowed to be built. But out here in the country, we've designated THIS area for agricultural use! More and more though, that's NOT how it is, because we in ag are now outnumbered by the non-ag residences, even in the ag protection districts. It's very, very sad!
Bending the rules by allowing "variances" goes against everything that the zoning ordinances were attempting to prevent. There's a reason why the ordinances were drafted the way they were.
IF... yes, IF the residential district ordinances don't allow you to have "a cow", there's a reason why they've implemented those restrictions. There is eventually going to be nothing but houses out there. And those neighbors don't want to be hearing or smelling cattle.... that's what it comes down to. And if you have one, you can bet that sooner or later, the town board that allowed a variance AGAINST the zoning ordinance is going to be sued over it.
Yeah.... you asked............ and I gave you MY two cents worth. This IS a personal liberty sore spot for me........ I'm tired of us not having our personal property rights respected. I'd prefer that they didn't allow ANY non-ag housing in the ag protection district, unless they're going to be willing to allow everybody to do whatever they want to with their own property, and then throw out all the lawsuits that arise over one person complaining about what their neighbor is doing on HIS property!