Salt Lake County Council is redrafting ordinance allowing residents to keep chickens

SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake County Council is redrafting an ordinance that would allow chickens and other fowl in unincorporated areas of the county.

The original ordinance, proposed Tuesday, was sent for a redraft after council members debated several specifics, including the prospects for renters and duplex residents, distance from neighbors' property lines, number of chickens and slaughter policies. Council Chairman Joe Hatch even suggested eliminating the permit process.

Currently, only residents living on agricultural zoned land are allowed to have chickens, but council members said Tuesday the new ordinance would expand that to anyone who can abide by the ordinance's sanitation and building rules.

Some of the people who spoke during a public hearing on the ordinance Tuesday expressed concern about the council's idea of requiring quarter-inch chicken wire instead of the standard half-inch.

"In all the research I have done, you don't find any coops that you can buy that are a quarter inch," said chicken owner Marinda Coleman.

Coleman estimated that the quarter-inch wire is 20 percent more expensive and said she's not seen it used in classes on chicken keeping.

The new ordinance is expected to be presented and voted on in the council's March 23 meeting.

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