Austin industrial and agricultural use classifications

Urban farm or market garden: the line is one acre

These two classifications are word-for-word identical except for size. Both are a site "cultivated primarily for the sustainable production of agricultural products to be sold for profit", and both "may provide agricultural education activities". The difference:

• Urban farm — at least one acre, and it may consist of multiple contiguous parcels.
• Market garden — less than one acre.

The multiple-parcels clause only appears in the urban farm definition, which matters if you are assembling adjoining lots to reach the acre.

Both are distinct from a community garden, which is growing or harvesting crops by a group of individuals for personal or group use, consumption or donation — the dividing line there is selling for profit, not size.

The rest of the agricultural set

• Animal production — raising animals or producing animal products including eggs and dairy, on an agricultural or commercial basis.
• Horticulture — growing flowers, shrubs and trees for ornamental or landscaping purposes, excluding retail sales. A nursery that sells to the public is plant nursery, a commercial use.
• Support housing — living accommodations for agricultural employees or their families. Note this is classified as agricultural, not residential.

Custom manufacturing is limited by horsepower, not square feet

This is the most unusual limit in either section. Custom manufacturing is on-site production of goods using:

• hand tools;
• domestic mechanical equipment not exceeding five horsepower; or
• a single kiln not exceeding 12 kilowatts;

plus the incidental sale of what is produced. Almost every other size limit in the code is floor area; this one is tool power. A studio can leave the classification behind by buying one machine or a second kiln without changing size at all.

The industrial classifications come in pairs

Warehousing splits on enclosure. Limited warehousing and distribution is wholesaling, storage or warehousing within an enclosed structure. General warehousing and distribution is open-air storage, distribution or handling. Same activity, different classification, decided by whether it has a roof and walls.

Light manufacturing is manufacture predominantly from previously prepared materials — processing, fabrication, assembly, treatment and packaging, with incidental storage, sales and distribution. The "previously prepared materials" phrase is what separates it from primary processing.

The remaining three are narrow: recycling center (collection, transfer or processing of recyclables — compare the commercial drop-off recycling collection facility, which expressly excludes processing), resource extraction, and stockyards.