Whiteland resident Shawn Butler holds a chicken at his home in February. Butler bought a small flock of chickens to raise in his yard over a year ago, and he asked the town council to consider changing the town code.
Daily Journal File Photo
Whiteland’s highly-debated chicken ordinance made it to the other side of the road.
In a split 3-2 vote, the Whiteland Town Council on Tuesday voted to confirm adoption of an ordinance to allow residents to keep backyard chickens in town limits. Residents can now follow a permit process to start raising chickens at their homes.
Council members were again divided in their decision, between those for allowing owning chickens and those against. Members David Hawkins and Richard Hill, who have both been against chickens in residential areas from the beginning, voted against the measure.
Chicken rules
Residents can keep up to six adult hens on a single-family or two-family residential lot. Roosters are not be permitted. This ordinance will not overrule any already established rules against owning chickens in subdivisions with homeowners’ associations or covenants.
Chickens have to be kept in a coop, pen or chicken run that is within a fully fenced yard, with a fence at least four feet tall. Coops cannot be larger than 120 square feet in area and 10 feet high, with a minimum of six square feet of run space per animal.
A permit would be required to own chickens, which could be acquired through the Whiteland zoning department. A $35 fee that’s already in town code for a permit for an accessory structure is applied to this permit process as well.
Much like the process to build another accessory structure, residents will need to show town officials what the enclosure will look like and where on the property it will be located. The proposed structure may be subject to an in-person inspection by the town or a third-party.
Waste has to be removed on a regular basis and the smell of the waste should not reach beyond the property line. Waste, anything contaminated by the waste, or chicken carcasses cannot be disposed of through Whiteland’s municipal trash services. The slaughter of chickens on a permit-holder’s property is prohibited.
Applicants for chicken permits are required to follow the legal procedure for a public notice, which includes notifying adjoining property owners within “two property depths” or within 660 feet of the property. Those neighbors would be allowed to submit written objections or appear at the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing to speak on the chicken permit.
A chicken permit will not have to be renewed on a regular basis, and would be indefinite. But permit holders may be subject to regular inspections by the town or a third-party, the most recent draft says.
End of a long process
The town council and the advisory plan commission spent the better part of this year debating the backyard chicken issue.
Backyard chickens first came to the council’s attention in February, when resident Shawn Butler pleaded with members to consider changing the law. Butler has kept a small flock of hens in his yard in Spring Hill for almost two years now. In January, he was notified by the town that he was in violation of the town code.
A months-long process then ensued, where several drafts of a chicken ordinance were written, revised, scrapped and re-written multiple times.
The final vote came to the council meeting on Tuesday, where the members again split on the idea.
At the start of discussion, Hawkins passed out photos of Butler’s yard to other council members. He pointed out that Butler would not even be compliance with this new ordinance because he owned 12 chickens, not six.
“One question to the council is, would anybody want to be sitting there looking at this from their backyard, their side windows or the front window or whatever it is?” Hawkins said.
Council President Joe Sayler responded that the council was considering a new ordinance, not a code enforcement issue.
Hill again asked if the council would consider amending the text again to include more specifics for privacy fences, landscaping requirements and architectural standards for coops, for example. He also wanted to see an annual permit renewal added. These specifics were previously proposed as an amendment by Hill and Hawkins at the July council meeting, and all were shot down in a 3-2 vote.
If the council were to amend the ordinance again, it would restart the entire process they’ve already been through. That would include sending it back to the plan commission, which already voted the ordinance down twice.
Sayler said he did not have interest in restarting the amendment process again because Hill and Hawkins at the last meeting voted against amendments by other council members that did include part of their own ideas.
“When you vote against the very ideas that you’re asking for, I don’t know that I’m in a position where I’m going to go down that road again,” Sayler said.
Hill and Hawkins then said they are against the ordinance as a whole, but they want to protect the town if it’s going to pass anyway. They both said they voted against other amendments because the other council members voted against adopting a version they preferred.
“We voted against those because the things we thought needed to be in there … those were all left out,” Hawkins said.
Council member Brad Goedeker said he could not get on board with everything in the redline version Hill and Hawkins proposed in July. He, Sayler and council member Laura Fleury had said they felt what Hill and Hawkins were asking for would make it nearly impossible for someone to obtain a chicken permit.
“I went through and I tried to find common ground,” Goedeker said. “… And you guys systematically voted against your own ideas every single time.”
What’s next
Butler thanked the council on Tuesday for passing the ordinance. He was not entirely satisfied with all the requirements for the permit process, but he called it a “step in the right direction.” He is working to make arrangements to part ways with six of his chickens to ensure he’s in compliance with the new code.
He hopes the town does not “over-enforce” the new chicken ordinance as people who buy chickens learn how to take care of them. He’s called his experience a learning curve, trying to figure out best practices in building a coop and taking care of his chickens.
“I hope the town understands with this, people have to learn how to do this,” Butler said. “I mean, how many people here have raised chickens in their lives? Probably not many.”
Butler has already put plans in motion with the Whiteland FFA to host a class about raising chickens in the near future. He has at least eight people interested in getting started.
“The hope is so that people can go through this and learn to do it right the first time,” Butler said. “Instead of having to go through and learn the hard way like I did, losing three or four chickens to hawks, for example.”
