For most rural property owners, the outbuildings on their property serve a variety of purposes. The same is true for Oregon farmers and their barns. It is uncommon to find a barn in Oregon that is devoted entirely to farm use, with no other activity occurring within. Whether the barn is used to store an old car, park the family RV for the winter, store some old furniture, or used as a repair shop for the family farm and non-farm equipment, barns are almost always used as multi-purpose buildings. Oregon law has long exempted barns and other accessory buildings from the commercial building code, as long as the barn is used for farm use. Recently, a few local building officials have developed a “zero tolerance” policy which requires a farmer or other rural resident making any non-farm use in their barn, no matter how minor, to comply with the commercial building code. The construction costs to comply typically exceed $100,000, and would be triggered when the farmer makes non-farm uses like the ones listed above. HB 2611 clarifies state policy, making it clear that farmers and other rural residents won’t have to bring their barns/outbuildings up to commercial building code standards just because there’s some non-farm activity within the building.