The James City County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to expand backyard chicken keeping to more residential land in the county.
Supervisors Mary Jones (Berkeley), Michael Hipple (Powhatan) and Kevin Onizuk (Jamestown) provided the yes votes to add land in the county’s general residential designation to the list of places where backyard chicken keeping is allowed. Supervisors John McGlennon (Roberts) and Jim Kennedy (Stonehouse) opposed the expansion.
General Residential features dozens of neighborhoods, including Rolling Woods, Ford’s Colony, Kingsmill, Seasons Trace and Windsor Forest. Many neighborhoods in the General Residential designation have homeowners associations with covenants in place, and those that have rules against the practice of backyard chicken keeping trump the zoning ordinance that allows expansion.
To assuage homeowners associations’ concern about the expansion, Onizuk proposed the addition of language to the ordinance stating that any covenants an HOA has in place regarding chicken keeping supersedes the county’s ordinance. That language was added at Tuesday’s meeting.
The vote by the supervisors to expand backyard chicken keeping comes despite recommendations of denial from the James City County Planning Division and the planning commission.
Jones said she disagreed with the planners on the expansion, saying she agreed with Hipple’s statement that enough time had been spent considering the issue.
“We have other things to be discussing,” Jones said. “To allow citizens to have a few chickens in their backyard, I don’t understand how it’s become such a big deal.”
Hipple said he saw no problem with the expansion, noting he has kept chickens since he could walk.
“I don’t know how a chicken became public enemy number one,” he said. He said the discussion regarding the expansion of backyard chicken keeping became entangled with HOAs, and “that’s where the whole thing went out of whack.”
“You’re safe,” Hipple said to neighborhoods with HOAs. “You’re not going to have chickens.”
Onizuk said he has talked to officials in York County, where backyard chicken keeping is allowed in some areas, and he said they have not encountered problems.
Kennedy said nothing while McGlennon said he has made his position on the matter clear in the past. In June, Kennedy and McGlennon voted against the expansion of backyard chicken keeping to the limited residential designation.
The expanded ordinance does not allow for the harvesting of chickens.
The supervisors voted 3-2, with Jones and Hipple opposed, to deny expansion of backyard chicken keeping to land zoned in the residential redevelopment designation. There is not any land in the county with that designation, which is designed to promote redevelopment of land.
Onizuk said he opposed adding that designation to the list of places where backyard chicken keeping is acceptable because how any land with that designation will ultimately be used remains unknown. The designation allows myriad residential development, including denser construction like multifamily homes and townhouses.
Prior to their vote, the supervisors hosted a public hearing on the matter. Seven people spoke in support of the expansion, while none spoke against.
“What’s the harm in it?” said Eric Danuser, a county citizen, during the public hearing. “I will once again guarantee the chicken population won’t explode into the chicken apocalypse.”
Danuser said the debate over the expansion had been clouded by “noise,” calling arguments made to county staff against chicken keeping “speculation and hearsay.”
Any land in the general residential designation where backyard chicken keeping is to occur must meet several requirements:
- Chickens may only be kept on 15,000-square-foot or larger properties with single-family homes;
- Two chickens are permitted per the first 5,000 square feet, and one additional bird is allowed per each additional 5,000 square feet;
- No more than 12 hens are allowed per property, and roosters are not allowed;
- Coops or cages are required and only allowed in the rear yard, and must be at least 5 feet from property lines and 25 feet from any neighboring home;
- Chickens must be housed outside of any resource protection areas, which are 100-foot buffers protecting the county’s waterways and wetlands; and
- Property owners must submit a county application to keep chickens and pay a $20 fee.
Backyard chicken keeping has been a source of discussion in the county for more than a year. In July 2013, McGlennon and then-Supervisors Jim Icenhour (Jamestown) and Andy Bradshaw (Powhatan) decided to not pursue an ordinance change to expand backyard chicken keeping beyond the general agriculture, rural residential and low-density residential designations where it was already allowed.
The issue came back after November’s election, when Jones asked for the issue to be reconsidered. By June, backyard chicken keeping had made it back to the supervisors, who voted to approve an expansion into the limited residential district.
Related Coverage:
- JCC Planning Commission Does Not Recommend Expansion for Chicken Keeping
- James City County Expands Chicken Keeping to Larger Area
- JCC Planning Commission Votes ‘No’ to Backyard Chickens
- JCC Committee Asks Staff to Draft Ordinance Allowing Backyard Chicken Keeping
- JCC Supervisors Vote Jim Kennedy Chairman, Recall Chicken Keeping
- James City County Supes Clarify Positions on Backyard Chicken Keeping