Public hearing set for chicken regulations

Perry Township residents soon will have another chance to voice their opinions in a public forum about proposed regulations for owning chickens in certain subdivisions in the community.

Township trustees will hold a public hearing at 6:45 p.m. Sept. 11 to hear comments on a list of prospective zoning text amendments dealing with chicken ownership. The township Zoning Commission held a separate public hearing on these same proposals on July 25. Commission members met again on Aug. 15 and voted unanimously to send the zoning text amendments to trustees for further consideration.

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 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 the township, at the Zoning Commission’s Aug. 15 meeting.

Regulations that the commission voted to send to trustees are slightly different from the proposal 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 complaintbased, Smerigan said.

Trustees will hold a public hearing on the zoning text amendments 15 minutes before the start of their regular meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 11.

However, it’s likely that trustees will wait until their Sept. 25 meeting to take a final vote on the proposed regulations, board Chairman Rick Amos said.

“We always wait two weeks or so, we just do that as a matter of course unless there is some urgency to pass something,” he said. “That way, you get a chance to give full consideration to any comments that might have been made before you have to make a decision.”