Board mulls letting residents keep chickens
TOWAMENCIN >> A day after North Wales Borough continued talks on whether residents should be allowed to keep chickens at their homes, Towamencin officials started to have the same conversation.
“I have two daughters, and thought it might be a nice project. There’s no commercial interest in selling eggs, and if people are concerned about the slaughter of animals, I don’t think that’s appropriate for this use,” said resident Brian Kuhn of Kerr Road.
Kuhn told the township super-
visors Wednesday he had looked into township codes to see if residents keeping chickens were permitted, and found that under current codes it may not be possible.
Chapter 153, Section 502 of the township code covers livestock kept in residential areas, and states that livestock can be kept as a accessory to a single family home only on lots of at least five acres.
“The number of livestock permitted per acre shall be in accordance with the following: horses, ponies: one per acre; swine, goats, cows and sheep: two per acre; domestic poultry: no more than 25 per acre,” the code state.
The current code also specifies that livestock must be kept at least 25 feet from all property lines, any building used to shelter or house livestock must be located at least 100 feet from a property line, and “no persons owning or keeping livestock shall maintain such so as to create any health, odor, or safety hazard.”
Should the township modify those codes to let residents on smaller lots keep chickens too? That’s a discussion that began Wednesday night.
“I know people in other municipalities that have chickens on half-acre lots, and it’s a complete non-issue,” said supervisor Laura Smith.
She and Supervisor David Mosesso said they used to buy raw milk and eggs from a farm stand in the township, and they might be open to changing the code to allow them in the township.
“Far be it for me to want to stifle free enterprise,” Mosesso said — but pointed out one prohibition he’d like to see in the code, based on a lesson he learned from living next to a neighbor in another municipality who had both chickens and a rooster.
“I used to get up for work every morning by that rooster. I didn’t eat my alarm clock, but that would be my biggest objection: no roosters,” Mosesso said.
Smith said she thought residents could have fun keeping chickens, as well as other hybrid animals not addressed in the current codes such as small pigs. Kuhn said he had no intention of getting any other livestock, just chickens, and the supervisors directed staff to do more research and continue the conversation at a future meeting.
“The consensus was for staff to gather information,” said supervisors Chairman Chuck Wilson.
Several other items were discussed and approved by the board during the April 12 meeting. The board voted unanimously to update a field use agreement with Towamencin Youth Association to include an annual adjustment based on the consumer price index, rather than a fixed increase of 3 percent per year.
The board also discussed whether to proceed with a payment to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission of $7,800 the commission has requested for a 1,030-linear-foot-long easement where a trail will be built near the commission’s project to widen the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. After a lengthy discussion, the board directed Township Manager Rob Ford to contact Turnpike officials and ask that the easement be given to the township for free, in light of delays and local road closures caused by the widening project.
Ford and Township Engineer Tom Zarko also gave the board an update on a coordinated plan being developed by several municipalities in the Skippack Creek watershed to comply with stormwater runoff regulations and requirements. The board voted unanimously to join the joint effort, and Zarko said the costs will be billed to the township as work is completed.