GREAT NEWS in Montgomery County, MD!

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They have not changed. Still 25’ set back and 100’ from neighbors.. with many of the council members now forced out due to recent term limits imposed upon them, many were not in the mood to entertain changing chicken ordinances due to them running for another office. I am waiting for the next crew to be voted in (and a bit more progressive in their thinking) and will start reaching out to them to get the ball going.

However, the county lawyer did write a letter stating that moveable, wheeled, coops are not considered an accessory structure and do not count in regards to the code. So as long as you don’t get a rooster, pick up you poop to prevent smell, and share eggs with neighbors then you will be ok. I eventually even let each house name a chick so they could see the eggs from their babies.
 
chateau poulet said:
We just got through the first step in changing our BYC zoning code, and got a great result!

The old zoning required 100 feet from a house and 25 feet from a property line.
The new code requires the hen-house to be 5 feet from property line and 15 feet from a neighboring residence, and limits us to 8 hens.

This is for our "suburban lot" residential zones, averaging 6,000 sq feet. True back yard chickens!
So exciting! Now we just have to shepherd it through the final steps to official approval.

They had tried to push through 25 feet from property line.
Then 20 feet from property line, but included all fences associated with the hens (the pen).

Finally, they decided that allowing chickens was the modern thing to do, and that making it difficult is out of date with modern desires and values. (cheers from the audience!!) So they switched course and went with our request, of 5 feet from property line for hen house, consistent with the rules for dog houses, sheds, etc.

Woo-hoo!!!
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Awesome news! Thank you for posting this! I live in Taneytown, MD and this is great to know that a surrounding county has updated their regulation! It will help me in gathering more evidence for backyard chickens.
 
FYI -

I found this Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services website regarding "Backyard Chickens":
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DPS/Process/zspe/Chickens.html

It contains the following information:

Zoning information
  • The zoning ordinance does not prohibit the keeping of chickens; however, 59.3.2.9.B.2 does prohibit Roosters.
  • The zoning ordinance does regulate placement of chicken coops: In Montgomery County any accessory building or structure used for the housing, shelter, or sale of animals or fowl other than a household pet must be a minimum of 25' from a lot line and a minimum of 100' from a dwelling on another lot. The structure must be in the rear yard.
  • Be sure to check with Animal Control regarding regulations as it pertains to chickens.
 
John2510 said:
FYI -

I found this Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services website regarding "Backyard Chickens":
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DPS/Process/zspe/Chickens.html

It contains the following information:

Zoning information
  • The zoning ordinance does not prohibit the keeping of chickens; however, 59.3.2.9.B.2 does prohibit Roosters.
  • The zoning ordinance does regulate placement of chicken coops: In Montgomery County any accessory building or structure used for the housing, shelter, or sale of animals or fowl other than a household pet must be a minimum of 25' from a lot line and a minimum of 100' from a dwelling on another lot. The structure must be in the rear yard.
  • Be sure to check with Animal Control regarding regulations as it pertains to chickens.
Click to expand...
Does anyone know if there is any regulations for pet turkeys? I'm entertaining the idea of a pet turkey in Montgomery County. Any advice?
 
chateau poulet said:
Yay! So glad to know another chicken person in the area! I'd love to have you join the local listserv. Have you joined a yahoo group before? If not, you'll have to set up a yahoo account first. Then, once that's activated, you can click [JOIN THIS GROUP] to join ours. If you send me your email, I can send an invite directly to you, or you can click this link:
[email protected]

Right now, our main focus is making sure this new code goes through, but we've also helped to re-home hens, including a temporary placement following a citation from Animal Control for one member. It's great to have a local group to support each other!

Please let me know if you need help getting on.
kaverbeck(at)gmail(dot)com
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Hi!

I have been in a few articles about initiating the change in zoning in the town of Poolesville to allow backyard chickens. After all the work that I did, along with several loyal supporters, the zoning laws were changed to allow chickens.

But our success has been very short-lived. Upon applying for a permit, which required me to take a higher education level course in chicken keeping (despite my 12 years’ experience as a chicken keeper), I discovered from town officials that even though I placed our coop 15 feet in from our lot line (according to requirements) that my coop is less than 100 feet from my neighbors, both on the opposite side of my house and behind me. My permit to keep chickens was declined, so sadly, I continue to “live in sin” with my three hens in Poolesville.

I’m curious what has happened to the zoning laws for the county… were MOCO’s laws ever changed? I read in places where they have, and others where the setback from neighboring properties is still 100 feet. In addition to working with the town on this, I would be interested in engaging the county to reduce the setback requirements to 50 feet, which seems more reasonable. On a town/municipality level, most have setbacks of 50 feet or less.

Thanks so much, and I look forward to your reply!
 
LizCarpenter said:
Hi!

I have been in a few articles about initiating the change in zoning in the town of Poolesville to allow backyard chickens. After all the work that I did, along with several loyal supporters, the zoning laws were changed to allow chickens.

But our success has been very short-lived. Upon applying for a permit, which required me to take a higher education level course in chicken keeping (despite my 12 years’ experience as a chicken keeper), I discovered from town officials that even though I placed our coop 15 feet in from our lot line (according to requirements) that my coop is less than 100 feet from my neighbors, both on the opposite side of my house and behind me. My permit to keep chickens was declined, so sadly, I continue to “live in sin” with my three hens in Poolesville.

I’m curious what has happened to the zoning laws for the county… were MOCO’s laws ever changed? I read in places where they have, and others where the setback from neighboring properties is still 100 feet. In addition to working with the town on this, I would be interested in engaging the county to reduce the setback requirements to 50 feet, which seems more reasonable. On a town/municipality level, most have setbacks of 50 feet or less.

Thanks so much, and I look forward to your reply!
Click to expand...
I'm not in your area but wow, 100ft from neighbours sounds like it's basically a way to not let peopel in any settlement areas have chickens. Is anyone trying to change this?
 
Big Bubba said:
PastaChickenBoo - there are others who can better answer your question than me. My basic understanding is that it depends. As I understand it there is nothing illegal about having chickens. The problem lies with having a coop. The coop needs to be 100 feet (I'm not sure about the actual distance) away from the neighbor's house. And, believe me, I'm very much simplifying here.

With that said, if you want to have chickens and are unsure if it is legal, get a buy in from your neighbors. I live in DTSS and by what I've read I'm not legal. However, I asked all my neighbors and none had an objection. In fact, they love being able to look out and see chickens and some them throw food out for them. Complaints from neighbors, legal or not, will not go well.

Animal control, I don't believe, actively go out and try to enforce the rules unless there is a complaint. I had animal control come out for a raccoon once and they clearly saw my setup. They didn't say one thing about the chickens and, instead, blamed me for the raccoon because of the wild bird feeder. While you may not be so lucky on getting such an uneducated animal control officer some people have complained about overzealous officers.
Click to expand...
Hi there,

I live in Poolesville, MD and spearheaded the initiative to overturn the ban on chicken keeping in our small, country town. We were the only municipality in Montgomery County where we are not allowed to keep chickens based on a debacle back in the 1990's when a resident was hoarding pigeons (turning the whole town upside down).

Now, we can keep chickens but the commissioners defaulted to the Montgomery County 100 foot setback from neighbors, so now, only people on an acre or more can keep backyard chickens! I'm on a 1/3 of an acre and my permit application was declined based on this 100 foot setback. So, I've basically accomplished nothing after a year's work on this issue.

My question is, how did Montgomery County come to the 100 foot setback? In looking at other counties, Howard is 50ft, Baltimore is 30ft, Anne Arundel is 25ft, and PG County is 50ft. What was Mo. County thinking in setting a setback that is so much greater in distance? Any light you can shed on this will be most helpful. Thanks!
 
chateau poulet said:
We just got through the first step in changing our BYC zoning code, and got a great result!

The old zoning required 100 feet from a house and 25 feet from a property line.
The new code requires the hen-house to be 5 feet from property line and 15 feet from a neighboring residence, and limits us to 8 hens.

This is for our "suburban lot" residential zones, averaging 6,000 sq feet. True back yard chickens!
So exciting! Now we just have to shepherd it through the final steps to official approval.

They had tried to push through 25 feet from property line.
Then 20 feet from property line, but included all fences associated with the hens (the pen).

Finally, they decided that allowing chickens was the modern thing to do, and that making it difficult is out of date with modern desires and values. (cheers from the audience!!) So they switched course and went with our request, of 5 feet from property line for hen house, consistent with the rules for dog houses, sheds, etc.

Woo-hoo!!!
Click to expand...
Hi there! I live in Poolesville and would love to connect with the Montgomery County team who tried to change the 100 foot setback from and adjacent dwelling setback. I know that ultimately, this never happened and was wondering if anyone has stepped forward to continue this argument 10 years later. I am in the process of trying to change our setback requirement in Poolesville, where we recently changed our legislation to allow chickens, only to find out that the 100 foot setback prohibits most of us on smaller lots from meeting this requirement! If you can direct me to some good folks who can shed some light on to why MOCO has a 100 foot setback to begin with, that would be great, as I know that neighboring counties as well as most towns/cities within MOCO have setbacks of 50 feet or less. Thanks, in advance, for your help with this!
 

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