Chickens in the Hills

Vestavia Hills has fielded calls about chickens for years.

Rebecca Leavings, Vestavia Hills city clerk, said she often hears from residents who want to know what restrictions the city has in place regarding keeping chickens in their yards.

In order to legally own chickens, a resident must live in an agriculture district. If a resident does not live in an agriculture district, Leavings said residents should examine their private residential covenants for animal restrictions. 

If no restrictions are found, the resident can apply for conditional-use approval from the City.

Several residents are concerned about this process of legally keeping chickens. April Aaron-Brush has lived in the city nearly all her life and is part of a growing group of around 30 residents that formed a Facebook group titled Vestavia Hills CLUCK (Citizens for Legalization of Urban Chicken Keeping). 

“Vestavia Hills CLUCK hopes to educate citizens on the benefits of urban chicken keeping,” Aaron-Brush said. “We do not feel that the current city ordinances address urban chicken keeping for the residents that live without covenant restrictions and for those that do not live on an agriculturally zoned property. We are asking the City Council to revisit our animal ordinances.”

Aaron-Brush said urban chicken keeping is on the rise across the country and the issue has come up in the surrounding suburbs such as Hoover, Homewood and Mountain Brook. She hopes Vestavia Hills will be the next to tackle the issue, and the misconceptions that often center on the distinction between commercial chicken production and having chickens as pets.

“The group is not asking for roosters or an absurd number of hens,” Aaron-Brush said. “Our hope is for our citizens to have the ability to own four to six hens which would be housed in our own backyards within our own property lines.”

Resident Chris Freeman said the current regulations are not clear and thinks that having a small number of hens is not a cause for alarm.

“My general opinion is that a handful of hens would be much less of an issue than the city currently deals with regarding dogs,” Freeman said.

Not all Vestavia Hills residents feel chickens have a place in the city limits. Jim Pattillo has lived in Vestavia Hills since 2007 and said having a pet chicken as a child was messy and loud.

“Although I love animals and am highly in favor of domesticating certain types for pets, based on my personal experience as the owner of a pet chicken, I think the council would do a disservice to Vestavia residents as a whole by allowing chickens as pets in residential neighborhoods,” Pattillo said.

Jon Vickers is concerned about chickens carrying diseases such as salmonella and said they would create a nuisance.

“Having an ordinance allowing chickens is not worth the risk of even one of the children in this wonderful community falling ill over chickens,” Vickers said. “We are a family-oriented community, not a farm community.”

As the debate continues of whether chicken keeping has a place in Vestavia Hills, the council continues to research the idea. For now, Leavings urges citizens requesting urban chickens to examine their residential covenants to see if they are eligible for conditional use approval.

“Agricultural animals in a residential district represents a change in use and, to change that use, a property owner needs to go through the same process as anyone else who wishes to change the use of their property,” Leavings said. “The conditional use approval is the best way to proceed for any property owner who is not subject to restrictive covenants and wishes to house chickens.”

Keeping chickens inside city limits

In December 2010, the City Council created “conditional use approval,” which would allow certain approved uses of urban chickens at the request of the property owner. Parameters include number of animals, coops and daily activities.

To apply for “conditional use approval,” the property owner is required to bring an application for conditional use, a copy of any restrictive covenant that might be against their property, a letter detailing the parameters of the request, a survey of the property showing where the chicken coops will be located and pay a $100 application fee.

After this process is complete, a public hearing is held before the Planning and Zoning Commission. The Commission will then make a recommendation to the Council, which will hold another public hearing and determine whether to approve, amend or not approve the Ordinance.