No code change to allow chickens

Committee members say discussion is now closed, chickens will remain on banned list

LANSDALE » A unanimous committee vote on Wednesday night has brought to an end the discussion on whether Lansdale residents will be allowed to keep chickens on their properties.

Council’s code committee voted down a draft change to the borough’s animal codes to allow for the keeping of chickens, a vote committee chairman Jack Hansen said was made with the entire town in mind.

“The committee had to think of all 16,000 people in this borough, not just a few people who wanted to keep the chickens as pets, even though we all sympathize with them on that,” Hansen said.

“We felt it was in the best interest of the borough to not change the ordinance. We’re keeping the ordinance for pets, but we are not going to change it to allow the keeping of chickens,” he said.

Council and borough residents have discussed since February whether to update chapter 48 of the borough codebook, which lists the types of animals that residents can and cannot keep, with chickens currently on the unallowed list. Residents have petitioned council to consider letting them keep chickens, and formed a “Lansdale Cluckers” group on Facebook to share tips and tricks, while last month the code committee said they had heard mixed reactions from residents and were waiting for feedback from the borough’s solicitor.

Hansen and borough Manager John Ernst outlined the results of that research during Wednesday night’s code committee meeting, describing a draft update that

would allow chickens, but with significant restrictions.

“‘Raising and keeping of domesticated chickens may be permitted,’ this is according to the proposed ordinance, ‘as an accessory use for a single family dwelling, and no other use,’” Hansen read from the draft.

The draft suggested chickens be allowed only on lot sizes of at least 5,000 square feet, with a maximum of three chickens allows on any lots, no roosters allowed, all structures located on the rear of the property, and no storage of feed or manure within 100 feet of any adjacent residence or 50 feet of any lot line.

“Right now, I believe that makes it very difficult for most people in the borough to raise chickens,” Hansen said.

Ernst said the limit to lot sizes was based on similar restrictions in North Wales and Jenkintown boroughs, and the limit of three pets was meant to match the current codes for other pets.

“The number three was hit upon because that’s the number that corresponds with our pet ordinance. You’re allowed to have three pets in the borough: three chickens, that’s it, three pets per household,” he said.

The limits on placing feed or manure near other property lines were also taken from other local municipalities’ codes, Ernst said, where other municipalities

may have allowed larger numbers of chickens on farm-type properties that could create noises and smells.

“My guess is, if we were to really look at this feed piece, we would look at crafting something that allowed, like, a five gallon bucket in your basement, and you can get scoops out and toss it in your coop or wherever,” Ernst said.

The draft code also specified anyone keeping chickens would have to have a hen house or coop with at least one square foot of space per chicken, along with separate egg laying area, and slaughtering must be conducted in a fully enclosed structure of some sort.

“I’m surprised that’s in there — I wouldn’t be in support of that,” committee member Denton Burnell said.

Burnell asked how the slaughtering prohibition, and the limit on numbers, would be enforced by borough staff, and Ernst said staff would not go out looking for offenders, but would have to address them if found.

“Many of our code enforcement issues are done by complaint. It is not the practice of the code enforcement department to go around looking for violations,” he said.

“Typically, we end up responding to complaints. They would typically come from neighbors, who are dealing with either noise or smell or other predators in their yard, trying to get to a neighbor’s chickens. That’s when the code enforcement department would get involved,” Ernst said.

Code department construction

manager Chris Kunkel said the code, “as well as this is written, it’s virtually unenforceable,” due to the difficulty staff would have of measuring things such as noise or smells.

“The neighbor calls, and says ‘I smell it, you come out here, code enforcement.’ I’ve got to go out there, and we don’t have a sniff detector, so what do I do?’” he said.

Hansen asked how the slaughter provisions would be enforced, and said he has heard chickens lay eggs for two to three years, but can live for several more years beyond then.

“If you’re keeping them around as pets, you won’t be getting eggs from them for six or seven years. If you wanted to get fresh eggs every time, you would have to eliminate your pets, as you go along replacing them,” Hansen said.

“I love them so much that to me, they’re like six little dogs. The eggs are a plus, but I’m not going to cook them when they’re done laying eggs. I treat them like a puppy or a cat,” said Nikole Kittredge, the Green Street resident whose chickens prompted the discission.

Ernst said, if approved, the new code would have also required residents to seek an accessory structure permit for the coop, and a variance from the borough zoning hearing board to have more than the permitted number.

“A chicken coop would be counted as an accessory structure. The accessory structure would have to be permitted, with a building permit. That provides the first level of enforcement,” he said.

Burnell said the petition presented by the residents contained verified signatures from just over 100 residents, and he had to balance their desire with the roughly 16,000 total residents in town.

“That’s less than onehalf of 1 percent of the people that live in this borough, and we’re going to change the laws for everybody, so we have to take that into consideration,” he said.

“I’m very, very concerned about the enforceability of this as written. I bet everyone one of us knows somebody that has more than three pets in their house. I think I’d have to see a lot of changes here before I’d be comfortable with it,” he said.

Hansen said he thought the code would also need to address fencing around the coops, and questioned whether the borough would be able to require that coop fences go underground to prevent burrowing. Burnell said he had too many questions and issues with parts of the code to be able to support it, and when Hansen called for a vote, those two and committee member Rich DiGregorio also voted against recommending it to full council.

“We have no motion. Then I consider this topic closed at this time. The borough will continue on with its pet ordinance that we have now, but there is no allowing of chickens in the borough,” Hansen said.

Lansdale Borough Council next meets at 7 p.m. on May 16 and the Code committee next meets at 8 p.m. on June 6, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine St.