How to change them

I am a city council member in a small town in South Dakota. I am sympathetic to the idea of permitting folks to keep a few chickens as people did in my town years ago. Since the people on this site are far more into this, and knowledgable than me, I am hopeful I can get a little help in moving my community forward (or backward seventy years, depending upon your perspective). What are the reasonable restrictions that should be placed on citizens, number of birds, roosters, sanitation, acreage, etc.? What are the responses to the arguments people make to having chickens in a community, sanitation, noise, proliferation of other farm animals? Thank you in advance.

SoDakFriend said:

I am a city council member in a small town in South Dakota. I am sympathetic to the idea of permitting folks to keep a few chickens as people did in my town years ago. Since the people on this site are far more into this, and knowledgable than me, I am hopeful I can get a little help in moving my community forward (or backward seventy years, depending upon your perspective). What are the reasonable restrictions that should be placed on citizens, number of birds, roosters, sanitation, acreage, etc.? What are the responses to the arguments people make to having chickens in a community, sanitation, noise, proliferation of other farm animals? Thank you in advance.

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around here --for lot size of 6000-8000 sq ft up to 5 hens, NO rooster, no distance from neighbors required

I think you can have up to 50 hens for 1 acre

the city already has noise and smell ordinance + hoa regulations--


if you have neighbors that are about 30-40 ft from you

common complaints would be smell and noise from irresponsible BYC owners

for neighbors with pools.. keeping the feathers from flying over into their pool is a must.

A lot of what I've seen from the local areas that DO allow them specify up to 4 or 5 hens, no roos, and there is a minimum distance from neighbouring property lines they have to be kept (0.9m from neighbouring property line is a number I see a lot).

There are a lot of concerns I see thrown around, but not many are really that defensible, IMO. Smell from irresponsible owners? Well, that happens with dogs too and we don't ban them. Spread disease? Your neighbourhood roaming cat is FAR more likely to spread disease (toxoplasmosis anyone??) than a small number of chickens kept in a backyard coop. Those kinds of things. Noise is something that is very much taken care of by limiting numbers, banning roos, and creating buffer between neighbours.

Honestly, it should be looked at much the same way dogs are. We're not allowed to have more than three dogs in my city without a special circumstance (like running a kennel), and we're not allowed to let them make tonnes of noise or a huge mess. This gets checked on a complaints basis (and people are far more likely to notice a neighbour with a dog than a neighbour with a clean, under-filled coop I think).

Google the City of Edmonton Urban Hens Pilot Project. They have some great guidelines and present some good evidence