Provo council looking at chicken ordinance

PROVO — New York City allows them. So does San Diego, Key West, Albuquerque, Portland, Topeka, even Honolulu.

Closer to home, Elk Ridge is considering a chicken ordinance. Now Provo is considering joining this group of cities to allow chickens.

The City Council has been wrestling with an ordinance so residents may keep chickens on their property with certain regulations. On April 14, the council will take up the topic again.

"The discussion is still very preliminary and the text is a preliminary draft," said Terry Ann Harward, executive director of the council.

The draft ordinance defines chickens as a household pet "ordinarily permitted in the house and kept for company or pleasure and not for profit." As written it would allow six chickens and a henhouse of 2 square feet per chicken in an enclosed area that is cleaned weekly.

If a homeowner wanted to slaughter a chicken he would have to take it off the property, the ordinance says.

The draft doesn't yet say how close to the resident's or a neighbor's house the henhouse should be, but the council looked at 25 cities around the country that allow chickens and found that it varies from no restrictions to 50 feet. Twenty feet is common.

— Rodger L. Hardy