“Chicken Ordinance” Permits the Quieter Poultry

Chicken. Photo by
David Goehring / Flickr

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Planning and Zoning commission continues public outreach for the “chicken ordinance,” which aims to loosen up restrictions for poultry enthusiasts in the borough.

The changes arose from complaints about code prohibitions on keeping small animals in certain residential districts.

The borough suspended the enforcement of those regulations in 2016 to give the borough time to review the code. Since then, borough staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission have held two meetings soliciting public comment on the changes to title 17.

Those include allowing people to keep small animals including domestic fowl like chickens and ducks, “fur and meat animals” like rabbits and guinea pigs, and “small hooved animals” like pigs and goats. Not permitted are loud animals like roosters and peacocks or large ones like cows.

Keeping these animals now falls under “urban agricultural activities” and, under the ordinance, would be permitted in R1 Single-Family Residential, R2 Two-Family Residential, R3 Multi-Family Residential, and RR Rural Residential zoning districts.

Last month’s public meeting on the changes left the ordinance draft unchanged.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will ask for community input again at its work session tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the borough conference room.

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