CHANDLER — An ordinance allowing chickens to be kept at any single-family home is set to go before the Chandler City Council on Monday.
Ordinance No. 5035, which has been worked on for the past year, would allow as many as five chickens to be kept in backyards or sideyards of single-family lots, with a long list of size and spacing restrictions.
Several city departments have reviewed the ordinance and city staff recommends approval, as did the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, by a 5-2 vote. The commission meeting technically only votes on recommendations to the council regarding items within land use and zoning, so its 5-2 vote was only on the proposed definition of a chicken coop in Chapter 35.
Currently, properties zoned agricultural and zoned single-family SF-33, which equates to about 778 residential lots in Chandler, according to the city, allows for an unlimited number of chickens.
Homeowner associations, which comprise 71.5% of single-family subdivisions in Chandler, can prohibit the keeping of chickens through their covenants, conditions, and restrictions, the city says.
The five chickens allowed under the proposed ordinance must all be hens. Roosters are and would continue to be prohibited within Chandler city limits in any zoning district.
The city says in 2013, a group of residents requested a code amendment to permit chickens within all single-family lots.
With a 4-2 Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval, the council voted down the ordinance by the narrowest of margins, 4-3.
“Concerns expressed at the time were largely around to the city’s ability to enforce the new ordinance as well as potentially lengthy compliance timelines,” the city said in a staff report.
Staff time, personnel, knowledge and timing needed to enforce a new ordinance is still a concern, looking at public feedback during the city’s 2022 discussions on the subject.
Feedback includes concerns about smell, predatory animals coming further into neighborhoods, escaped chickens, widespread feathers from moulting and loose dogs or other domesticated animals harming chickens.
On Jan. 13, council held a work session to discuss allowing chickens in some zones and requested staff gather chicken complaints and other information from neighboring municipalities. A second work session took place Sept. 19 to hear and read information gathered by staff.
There is a long list of definitions in the ordinance, including setback, coop size, permitting, location on a property, cleanliness, utilities and enforcement provisions. For example, coops larger than 120 square feet in size or 7 feet or taller in height shall be classified as an accessory building, requiring a building permit and setbacks associated with that property.
Properties zoned AG-1 and SF-33 would remain unchanged with their current privileges.
The city has solicited input online about the ordinance. It says as of Wednesday, Nov. 2, staff has received 228 total responses: 150 in favor, 46 against and 32 not indicating a clear preference. Entries from non-Chandler residents were not included.
It’s also unclear if two new council members-elect will leave a recently approved backyard chickens ordinance alone or attempt to modify or repeal it. The last meeting of the current council is set for Jan. 12, after which two new council members will be sworn in.
A regular study session is set for Jan. 23, with the first final-approval voting meeting for the new council set for Jan. 26.
Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.
He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.
Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.
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