Chickens. (Credit: E. Gregory/Flickr.com/Creative Commons)
Lot size is down to 20,000 square feet in latest draft
At long last, a chicken code is close to being on the books in Towamencin.
The township’s supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday night to advertise a new code.
“The township currently does not allow chickens on residential lots of less than five acres. At our last meeting, the board was open to reducing the lot size requirement to 20,000 square feet,” said supervisors Chairwoman Joyce Snyder.
Township officials first discussed whether to allow residents to keep chickens on their properties back in 2017 after a resident requested the board modify local codes to do so. Similar talks were held in nearby Lansdale and North Wales Boroughs at the time. Towamencin ultimately took no action to change the township’s rules that all but prohibit chickens, leading the supervisors to send the topic to the planning commission in 2021.
Nearby Montgomery Township voted in 2022 to allow them, after a resident input survey conducted the year before at the prompting of a resident group, and in 2023 then-Towamencin Supervisor Laura Smith said their planning commission had discussed versions of the code, with criteria including lot size, setback distances, visibility, numbers of chickens allowed, and prohibitions on roosters.
A vote to advertise a code was in summer 2023 was tabled for further discussion, and after Smith’s resignation in February, a resident asked in March if the chicken code was still being discussed and the board asked staff to revisit the topic.
In May township code staff brought forward an updated draft for board feedback, noting that the five-acre lot size limit could be reduced, setting out rules for the permits that would be needed, and noting that the township planning commission had no problem with the 20,000-square-foot limit. Since that direction from the board, Snyder said on Wednesday night, the township planning commission has since agreed with that lot size, and included recommended setbacks for coops and chicken runs in the code, which will be posted on the township website for public input ahead of a final vote to adopt.
Supervisor Kofi Osei noted that since the topic was first raised for the board, four of the five seats on the board have changed hands: “I do wish we worked through this a little quicker,” he said.
He then noted headlines earlier this year by the current secretary of agriculture encouraging backyard chickens as a way to help reduce egg prices, and said he hopes to see a similar effect locally.
“We finally got around to it, so I’m going to vote in favor (of advertising), and eventually vote to pass it,” he said.
For those interested in learning more, residents also shared on social media Thursday info on a public presentation on backyard chickens and the basics of getting, keeping, and caring for them; that presentation will be held at 7 p.m. on June 25 at the Elkins Park Library in Cheltenham Township and registration is required beforehand via cheltenhamlibraries.org.
Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on June 25, and the township planning commission next meets at 7 p.m. on July 7, both at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.
