Monongahela reviewing ordinances to allow for backyard chickens City’s planning commission to hold public hearing on raising chickens
MONONGAHELA – Monongahela is reviewing other municipal ordinances before it amends local zoning rules to allow for the raising of backyard chickens in residential neighborhoods.
The city’s planning commission will hold a public hearing next week on the curative amendment to the zoning ordinance to allow for the raising and housing of chickens, likely limiting them to four per yard, Monongahela records show.
“I think it’s reasonable,” said resident Michelle Parnell, who complained after Monongahela’s code enforcer ordered chickens off her property in January because the existing ordinance allows livestock only on farms.
City officials later said they were willing to redefine the ordinance after learning chickens are permitted in Pittsburgh.
Parnell said chickens also are allowed in Syracuse and Buffalo, N.Y., in an era when sustainable living has become trendy.
She said she was raised on a farm in West Newton and thought of chickens as pets.
Tamie Gido, the assistant code enforcement officer in Monongahela, said the chicken limit likely will be set at four since that’s the same number of pets each household is permitted to have in the city.
Gido also said the amendment will prohibit owning roosters within city limits.
“I would have preferred that they bumped it up to six,” Parnell said. She said chicken suppliers require customers to purchase chickens in lots of six.
Parnell also said she doesn’t predict there will be problems with chickens in Monongahela after the ordinance is amended.
“I don’t think everyone is going to run out and buy chickens because they approved them,” she said.
The city’s planning commission is reviewing ordinances pertaining to chickens that are approved in Rostraver Township and Penn Hills before drafting recommendations for city council to consider, Gido said.
Those ordinances deal with such issues as required lot size needed for fenced-in chicken coops and how far away from neighboring property lines they must be located.
“Some people may be denied them based on the footage between houses,” Parnell said.
The hearing will be held at 4:30 p.m. May 24 in council chambers, 449 W. Main St.