North Huntingdon to hold hearing on backyard chickens ordinance

The debate about keeping chickens in North Huntingdon’s residential areas will continue.

Township commissioners scheduled a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Town House, 11279 Center Highway, to hear another round of what has been heated discussion on the subject, including where residents can have chickens and how they should be kept.

Commissioners Zachary Haigis, board president, expects a vote on the ordinance this month. The board is set to meet Sept. 16.

Over the past month, commissioners have been split on several points, including the minimum size of the lot for chickens. The ordinance requires at least 10 acres for every six hens and prohibits roosters, but the proposal on the table reduces the minimum size in a residential district to one acre. Permits would be required, and the chickens would have to be kept in a hen house 20 feet from a property line and 40 feet from a neighboring house.

Some residents complained North Huntingdon wants to adopt regulations more strict than those in some Allegheny County municipalities.

Commissioner Virginia Stump had said residents are raising chickens on quarter-acre lots with no complaints. Stump maintains residents should be permitted to have the freedom to use their land.

Rather than permitting chickens on lots as small as one acre, Commissioner Brian Blasko preferred that the lots be larger, such as three acres, and the hen house be about 100 feet from a property line.

Commissioner Eric Gass said he favored allowing chickens on a parcel of less than an acre and doubted many people will be applying for permits to raise them. Gass said he liked the idea that people want to be self-sufficient.

Stump pointed out an issue that will remain a thorn in the side of the municipality: what to do about residents who already are raising chickens. The township has cited two residents for violating the existing ordinance — those citations have not been processed — but Stump said there are many more people who have chickens in residential neighborhoods.

Blasko said he would not be in favor of granting “grandfather status.”

Enforcing any residential chicken ordinance could put a strain on staff, said Ryan Fonzi, township planning director.

North Huntingdon is not the only area with a chicken conundrum.

A similar issue cropped up in Unity, where township officials met on the matter after complaints were raised about a resident’s chickens.