Lower Macungie Township PA

[primginger]

Anyone here have an experience in Lower Macungie. We have four hens, and recently a neighbor notified the township of our hens, the township has told us to remove the hens because we do not have an acre of property, we are 10,000 sq feet short.......We are considering fighting it, and getting as much of the media involved as possible to change these laws.

 

[Uniontown Poultry]

A great idea! When I fought my fight in Washington County, PA in '04, I came across a PA Superior Court decision that stated that minimum lot size requirements for certain types of land use in zoning ordinances in PA had to be reasonable in order to be constitutional (is it reasonable to require 1 acre for 4 hens?). Our lot requirement was pretty extreme - 5 acres for any poultry whatsoever, even one serama roo!

Did your township cite you or just tell you? Did they give you a time frame?

Can you get a copy of your local zoning ordinance? They have to provide you a copy by law (they can charge for copies), and it might be available online for free. In PA, the law library in your county courthouse is supposed to have a copy but they aren't usually reliably up to date. Your first job is to know that ordinance backwards and forwards. It can frame your whole attack & makes sure you don't miss any procedural stuff. Get that ordinance, and if you want any help w/ reading or interpreting it, PM me. I've been down this road before, in the same state. I understand the law and strategy (PA attorney here offering some advice for free). I strongly believe that wherever you have the right to have a garden, you should be allowed to have some chickens. If you have Q's or want me to look at your ordinance and make some suggestions, PM me. Krista.

 

[TandFCoach77]

I just got a letter from Lower Macungie that I have to remove my chickens in ten days. I have had these hens for two years. I do have a few roosters that we are in the process of harvesting. (They were an accident. We had a hen hide her eggs and hatch them!) See attached letter. Please offer any advice. We are far enough away from the property line. We have .75 acres. We can enclose them if needed. We do have more than four.

 

[ben234]

Did you ever resolve this or did you end up getting rid of the chickens? Looking to see what I am up against with the ordinances here in LMT. I dont meet the acreage requirements but have neighbors that are on board with the idea.

 

[HaySeedFarmGirl]

I have some curiosity about this as well. I’m looking at a house in upper Macungie Township, which has one acre and I would like to keep chickens, including a rooster so I would like to know what the ordinances are. I went on the Eco 360 for Mckenzie Township I can’t find anything about animals or any of the other questions that I have. It’s so hard to find this stuff.