Analysis of Chicken Ordinances from 25 Cities

For a land use planning class this semester, I conducted a semester long research project on urban chicken ordinances. For this paper I evaluated residential chicken ordinances from 25 cities, in an effort to gain a better understanding of the common components of chicken ordinances. I will provide a brief summary of my findings below, and will post my full paper to the site after I edit it a few more times. (I got an A on the paper, but I am a perfectionist- sorry!)

Common regulatory themes

Of the 25 cities that were evaluated, no two were identical in their restrictions and allowances. However, the common regulatory themes that emerged from the set evaluated are as follows: -The number of birds permitted per household -The regulation of roosters -Permits and fees required for keeping chickens -Chicken enclosure/containment restrictions -Nuisance clauses related to chickens -Slaughtering restrictions -Coop distance restrictions in relation to homes or property lines

Findings

-Ordinances were difficult to find and interpret, making public access to the information problematic -The most common number of birds permitted was 3 or 4 -In most cases roosters were not permitted or were not mentioned in the ordinance -10 of the cities required permits and fees to keep chickens, ranging from $5.00 to $40.00 -14 required chickens to be enclosed in a coop -17 cities had nuisance regulations related to chickens, such as smells and noise -4 cities allowed slaughtering, while most did not state one way or the other -16 stated distance restrictions of coop placement in relation to property line or nearby residences -There were also a variety of unique regulations found, such as storing feed in rat proof containers or specific square footage requirements per bird The above provides a very brief summary of the paper. I hope to get the paper posted soon. Also, in this paper I made recommendations about the components of a just and functional chicken ordinance, which I will blog about separately.