O'Hara officials may allow residents to raise chickens; vote slated for June 13

O’Hara residents who want to raise chickens may soon be able to in their own backyards.

Township officials plan to vote June 13 on a zoning ordinance amendment that would make “domestic chicken keeping” a permitted accessory use in residential and certain commercial districts.

A $50 permit fee also would be established pending amendment approval.

Specific districts outlined in the regulations where chickens would be permitted are R-1, R-2, R-3, R-4 — all residential designations — and CD-1 and CD-2, which are commercial districts.

Regulations include limiting coops to backyards and having only one per property.

Three chickens are permitted for the first 10,000 square feet of a lot. Each additional chicken would require an extra 2,000 square feet of property.

Mobile chicken coops, described as coops with wheels, can have a maximum of four chickens.

Stationary coops can’t be taller than 8 feet and can’t be larger than 100 square feet.

No roosters are permitted. Selling chickens, butchered meat and eggs also are prohibited.

The regulations were posted on the township’s website at ohara.pa.us.

Working toward a resolution

The battle to have chickens has been going on for at least a few years with discussions in 2019. At least one resident was threatened with fines in 2021.

Last November, the township planning commission forwarded to council a proposed zoning amendment, and elected leaders have pecked away at it ever since. Its first reading was approved at the May 9 council meeting.

Council had a public hearing on the zoning amendment Tuesday night. No one spoke for or against the measure.

Elected leaders then immediately went into a workshop meeting. One of the discussion items was setting a $50 permit fee for chickens.

Both the zoning amendment and permit fee are expected to be on the June 13 agenda.

Council Vice President Cassandra Eccles and members George Stewart, Mike Hammill and Olivia Payne were at the hearing and workshop. Council President Robert Smith and members John Denny and Richard Hughes were absent.

“I think we’ll be able to take action, and I think we worked hard as a council,” Payne said. “We did a good job coming up with a compromise for the number of people we have to work for in our community.

“The point of this ordinance is to have things in place for people who just didn’t do their research (and) want to run and get chickens ‘because they can.’ We need to have some rules in place, and things in place, so they do it properly, they do it respectfully.”

The township has 9,200 residents and 3,681 single-family properties.

Stewart declined to reveal which way he was leaning just in case something would happen before the voting meeting.

“What if something happens, like an avalanche of chickens all of a sudden comes down through the community park?” Stewart said. “Then everybody in O’Hara says, ‘We can’t have chickens.’ ”

The other three council members said they would approve the amendment.

Eccles said having chickens has a variety of benefits, including being educational for children as they help to take care the animals.

“The negative is the person that doesn’t do the right thing,” she said. “They let it smell. One person (can ruin it).”

Hammill said O’Hara would set a new standard for domestic chicken regulations.

“People who want to have chickens will feel comfortable owning them,” he said. “As long as (they’re) responsible people doing the right thing, following the ordinance, we shouldn’t have any problems. It’s a good ordinance. If we need to change things down the road, we can do it collectively.”