Salt Lake County will take another peck at a chicken ordinance that could allow residents to raise up to 15 backyard hens.
Almost a year after shelving a proposal that fowl fans considered too restrictive, the County Council will consider rules today that would allow coops in unincorporated communities from Magna to Millcreek.
The rules would represent a return to rural living for Utah's most-populous county, where homeowners could harvest eggs in otherwise-residential neighborhoods.
Similar laws have been hatched in Utah cities and across the nation in major metros from Honolulu to Houston to Baltimore.
While Salt Lake County's ordinance would make urban hens legal, the requirements would remain stringent enough that some chicken backers are squawking.
They complain about licensing (coops would have to receive an annual permit and inspection), about notification rules (prospective hen keepers would have to notify neighbors within 300 feet) and about building standards (conventional half-inch chicken wire wouldn't be good enough).
"This is a step in the right direction," said would-be hen keeper Brian Ball. But the ordinance would make it "extremely cost prohibitive to build, maintain and go through the licensing procedures for a coop."
The father of four would be willing to follow the rules to raise chickens outside his Millcreek home. But he wonders whether other residents would do the same.
"Having an ordinance that is so restrictive," Ball said, "may cause people to go under the radar and not do it appropriately."
County Councilwoman Jani Iwamoto, the ordinance sponsor, suspects the council may make changes before signing off on the chicken proposal -- perhaps in terms of coop materials and locations.
As the proposed rules now are written, Iwamoto concedes, they even might discourage her from owning hens.
"If we are going to do an ordinance," Iwamoto said, "we want to make it work."
Salt Lake County will consider and possibly adopt rules for raising urban chickens during its 2:30 p.m. meeting today at the County Government Center, 2001 S. State St.
