Can i own chickens in middle smithfeild pa? zip code 18302

[Mperez]

I live on half an acre of land, now I'm confused in east Stroudsburg it says you can own them, but in middle smithfeild you can't unless you have 5 acres of land? my mailing address says east Stroudsburg, though I don't actually live in the town itself. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dys2pm]

I am in Middle Smithfield also. You can check the zoning at ecode360. What I gather is you can have up to 5 pets commonly sold at a pet store. Poultry falls under agriculture. For that you need 2 acres. There is some way to get an exemption thew the Monroe County Conservation District. I spoke to one of the township reps and she seemed positive about backyard chickens. Our neighbor Smithfield was in the paper a couple of years back, and the poor guy was given 15 days to dump his chickens, and $500 fine per day after if he didn't conform.

At ecode there is mention of exemptions:

The Agriculture, Communities and Rural Environment Initiative (ACRE), amending Title 3 (Agriculture), also provides additional exemptions from municipal zoning regulations. [Note: See 3 P.S. § 1717, 3 P.S. § 911(b), 3 P.S. § 951 et seq., 53 P.S. § 10603(b), 53 P.S. § 10603(h) and Act 38 of 2005, respectively.]

But I have not had the time to dig further. The borough allows up to 25 chickens, but I don't remember seeing anything about property size. NYC 5 boroughs have no limit on the number of chickens or minimum lots.

They all have zoning in place for structures, odor, noise etc.

Maybe we fix this.

D

 

[Twitchy Bee]

Did you guys get to keep your chickens? I have 10 in e.s. but I'm also middle smithfield too. I cant lose my babies. They are everything to me