Palos Hills residents who keep chickens will face new restrictions, including a ban on raising roosters.
The City Council has yet to vote on the exact restrictions, but under a revised ordinance homeowners will likely be limited to four chickens that must be kept in a coop with a surrounding fence, their feed must be kept in rodent-proof containers and the area cleaned weekly, according to city officials. The chickens must also be registered with the city.
Homeowners cannot have roosters under the ordinance because of their early-morning crowing, and cockfighting also will be banned. The altered ordinance is modeled on Palos Park’s chicken ordinance.
Ald. Joan Knox, 1st Ward, who chairs the council’s legislation and ordinance committee, said chickens must still be kept at least 25 feet from any home, and the fine for violating the ordinance will be $80 per violation.
Aldermen said the new ordinance is needed not only because of recent complaints about people raising chickens but also because Palos Hills has regulations on raising chickens under two ordinances, the housing and animal ordinances, neither of which fully addresses the number allowed and how they are to be kept.
Mayor Jerry Bennett said recent complaints about chicken included them attracting predators, aggravating a dog, straying outside of an owner’s back yard and a crowing rooster. The complaints tended to be from residents in subdivisions with small lots, he said.
Several aldermen said they were fine with allowing more than four chickens, while others welcomed the new restrictions.
“I know a person who has six,” Ald. A.J. Pasek, 3rd Ward, said. “Some people want to have all those animals … that’s fine.”
Ald. Pauline Stratton, 2nd Ward, said she got a complaint from a mother that a crowing rooster had awakened her baby.
Ald. Marty Kleefisch, 1st Ward, said the city should prohibit chickens on residential property.
“Who’s going to enforce the violations, that’s a concern of mine,” he said, adding that the city’s ordinance officer has trouble keeping up with complaints about stray animals and building maintenance problems. “I believe farm animals should be in an agricultural setting. … I don’t think it’s appropriate for an urban setting.”
Knox asked City Attorney George Pappas to review the council’s suggestions and draw up the new ordinance. Aldermen have yet to decide whether to exempt from it residents who now have more than four chickens or a rooster.
“If there’s someone who has five (chickens), are they supposed to kill one and have it for dinner?” Pasek asked.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter.
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