Further talks for chicken code
Borough seeking more information in response to resident request to keep live chickens
LANSDALE » Talks are continuing on whether Lansdale Borough should update its animal control ordinance to allow residents to keep chickens on their property, and look likely to pick up again this Wednesday.
“We have residents who would like to have the legal right to keep chickens, and at this time we can’t allow that. So it is going to be passed on to our solicitor, to see what we can do to help,” said councilman Jack Hansen.
The chicken conversation started in Lansdale in early February, when residents of Green Street first asked what they would need to do to keep chickens they currently have. Chapter 48 of the borough codebook, which dates back to 1988, includes lengthy lists of animals that residents are and are not allowed to keep: cats, dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, and other domestic animals can be kept, and residents can’t keep any poisonous animals, apes, bears, bison, cheetahs, coyotes, elephants or “Poultry: ducks, chickens, swans, geese, turkeys and guinea fowl.”
Lansdale briefly discussed updating the animal code in 2010, but took no action, and last year North Wales Borough modified theirs to permit up to four chickens on lots that meet certain size criteria, while Towamencin started a similar conversation but took no action.
Back in Lansdale, Green Street resident Lisa Ricco started and circulated a petition last summer asking that council consider a change, and residents Nikole Kittredge and Christine Brennan brought the topic to council after Kittredge was told she could not keep six chickens she was given last year as babies. Area residents have started a dedicated Facebook group called “Lansdale Cluckers” to discuss
chicken topics, and council talks on the chicken question continued at the council Code committee’s March 14 meeting. According to Hansen, who is chairman of the committee, staff and the committee still need more information before making any recommendation.
“Then it will ultimately come before council for discussion, and to hear what you have to say about it,” he said.
Code committee member and council President Denton Burnell said the list of questions the committee needs to work through is a long but manageable one.
“There are a lot of concerns: there was concern, obviously, about proximity of properties. There’s issues about predators, disease, cleanliness, noise — noise is not so much an issue, but those other things are,” he said.
Councilman Leon Angelichio said he plans to keep
in mind that the same questions or issues could come up for pets that are already allowed.
“Everything (listed by Burnell) are very legitimate concerns for animals that are already on the ordinance. Dogs and cats: there’s a certain amount of maintenance, cleaning up after your dog, and cats, same thing, and allergies,” he said.
On Edgemont Avenue, Angelichio said, “we had a problem with feral cats, until we found two coyotes living down in the creek bed. Now we don’t have any more feral cats.”
Burnell said since the chicken topic has come back up, he has started rereading the borough’s design review manual, which spells out the sizes of property lots in different parts of the town. Certain properties could have a large square footage but narrow frontage and deep yards, Burnell said, so a code update that only allows
chickens within a certain distance from another property could lead to only narrow areas, like in the middle of a yard on a narrow lot, where chickens are allowed.
“Some of the townships do have a fairly large minimum lot size, and so I’m trying to get a sense of ‘Can we really accommodate it as well?’” he said.
“Every township, every borough, that’s done this has done it a little bit differently,” Burnell said.
Lansdale Borough Council next meets at 9 p.m. on April 4, with the Code committee meeting at 8 p.m., and a discussion on amending the animals ordinance to allow chickens is on the Code committee agenda. Both will be held at borough hall, 1 Vine St.