New rules for owning chickens head to trustees

Perry Township trustees will take the next step in considering new rules for owning chickens in certain subdivisions in the community.

The township Zoning Commission on Aug. 15 voted unanimously to send a list of zoning text amendments to trustees for further consideration. Trustees will hold a public hearing on the amendments and then vote on whether to approve the measures.

These suggested zoning amendments were

drafted in response to complaints that trustees have been receiving for the past year or so.

Trustees have been contacted about some residents of subdivisions who own chickens and allow them to roam uninvited into neighbors’ yards.

The proposed rules for keeping chickens would apply only in recorded subdivisions in the township with at least 15 lots, and the lots must be 1 acre or less in size.

“It’s a relatively small percentage of the total township,” said George Smerigan, a consultant for Perry Township.

Regulations that the Zoning Commission voted to send to trustees are slightly different from the proposal that the panel initially considered at a public hearing on July 25.

During that hearing, about 10 people spoke, and most of them expressed opposition to various parts of the proposal.

Some of the most unpopular sections in the original zoning amendments dealt with limiting the number of chickens allowed on each property to 12, and prohibiting the ownership of roosters.

Both of those proposed regulations were revised by the commission on Aug. 15.

Instead of limiting the maximum number of chickens per lot of 1 acre or less to 12, the revised proposal being sent to trustees permits owning one chicken for every 4 square feet in a pen or fenced-in area on the affected lots. Fences must be at least 6 feet high and pens must be enclosed.

In addition, roosters are permitted in the newly proposed amendment.

The prohibition of these birds drew opposition at the public hearing because many of the chickens raised by children in 4-H projects are roosters.

Another point in the original proposal dropped by the commission was a rule stating that the keeping of farm animals and/ or livestock shall be prohibited.

Two regulations in the original proposal were retained:

• No agricultural use, structure or building shall be permitted in front or side yards, or any closer to a road right-of-way than the rear line of the main building of a lot.

• The pen area shall be regularly cleaned and maintained so as to control odors and minimize health hazards.

If the regulations are approved by trustees, enforcement would be complaint-based, Smerigan said.

“If a neighbor complains, (Zoning Inspector Wally Siegel) would make sure if someone was keeping chickens, they were keeping them in compliance with the regulations,” Smerigan said.