Richland Township Allegheny County Chicken Ban

Richland Township is a rural community located in Allegheny County PA, North of Pittsburgh. Richland has been home to many farms large and small including, Eden hall farm and the McKelvey stop farm. The Township name literally means Rich Land. Local farms are a staple of Western PA.

Until recently.

There is an impending war on locally raised produce and animals in Richland Township. The Township is threatening to ban chickens in the Township to landowners with less than 4 acres. Furthermore chicken owners will be limited to 1 chicken per acre of land.
If you live in or near Richland Township it is imperative to spread the word about this ban on our locally produced food and restrictions on our freedoms.
Dean Bastianini is the Township manager in charge of taking away your freedoms.
You may contact him with your concerns at 724-443-5921 or use the contact page on the Richland Township website
http://www.richland.pa.us/contact.aspx

Please show your support at the planning commission.

February 15
7 pm.
At the Richland Township Municipal Building, 4019 Dickey Road, Richland.

http://triblive.com/mobile/9826645-96/chickens-richland-township

Bump

They are trying to ban rooster.

Hello, i read your post about the chicken ban. Has there been anymore information on this? I live in Gibsonia and just got some chicks because my neighbor has a bunch.

The Township planners handed out a draft of the ordinance at their planning meeting during the second week of March. It was pretty permissive with the exception of a fencing requirement and a ban on roosters. The planners suggested I send any input or research to the Township Manager, Dean Bastianini, to add weight to my suggestions to the draft. Mr. Bastianini's email is [email protected] and I'd appreciate it if anyone else interested would also send info to Mr. Bastianini.

I'm having a hard time pasting the draft ordinance into this post but I'd be happy to email if anyone asks. Or, request a copy from the Township's Code Enforcement officer, Jeffrey Walzer, at [email protected]

I feel the ban on roosters is excessive. The planners told me the draft ban is due to roosters being loud and aggressive. I mentioned that dogs can be loud and aggressive and it was ignored.

The planners and they are largely being influenced by their own personal experiences, or the experiences of their family members. One of the ladies on the planning staff believes all roosters crow every day, from 6:00-9:00 a.m. because her son told her so.

My recommendation to the planners was to establish a threshold for roosters based on size of the lot in question. Example, one rooster per 20.000 square feet, which is about a quarter of an acre.

I contacted the Northern Regional Police and there are no ordinances siting noises made by animals. There is a general noise ordinance that is used when issuing citations for dogs that bark excessively or machinery, but the ordinance is based more so on the frequency of the noise than the type or volume of noise.

The idea that all roosters crow all the time is false, and the planners seemed to refuse to believe otherwise. If anyone can assist me with providing the township information to change their opinion, I'd appreciate it.

The concern that roosters are aggressive is a moot point because any chicken owner is required to have a fence.

Lastly, the proposed ordinance only dresses chickens. It seems inefficient to go through the effort to make an ordinance that only addresses one type of animal when they could make one well thought out law that will apply to all.

Again, anyone who can help with sending research to the Township to make sure the planners and supervisors make an informed decision when creating this ordinance will be helping the entire Township. I welcome other points of view.

The chicken ordinance is one the agenda for this week's supervisor's board. Not sure if they are voting. Meeting is Wednesday, 20 April, 7:00 p.m. In the township building. This might be the last chance to make sure this ordinance is written correctly.

Should I attend this meeting?

I can't tell what to do but I think you should. I plan to attend, and I personally think more people from the community should attend. I found out they are not voting on it tonight, but are looking at the next steps to move forward. It is a good time for the community to provide more input.

We also live in Gibsonia, and I have been unable to find what the rules are for keeping chickens. Did anything ever come of this meeting?

Tiffanychick said:

Should I attend this meeting?

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Yes you should, and get other's to go also! If there's no one showing up for it, then they will think that there are no objection's to it. They do this out here where I live at rural when they want to build a ton of new home's in the area. It get's passed if there are no objection's because no one bothered to show up.