Prospect Heights officials emphasize need for chicken regulations, aim for June 23 approval
Prospect Heights village board members narrowed a set of regulations that would ultimately allow residents to keep chickens in their yards legally after years without any policies.
Among 11 residents who addressed the city council last week, only one expressed any support for the proposed rules. Others, some not even chicken owners, said the current policy allows the community to maintain a more rural feel they’ve become accustomed to.
Mayor Patrick Ludvigsen and other members of the council tried to persuade the audience regulations would help them.
“I know there’s disagreement on that, but it’s not allowed by our code to have chickens,” Ludvigsen said. “It’s an agricultural use that requires 5 acres. So although it may seem like we’re working against you, we’re actually working for you. Just because they’re here doesn’t make it right. And we want to make it right for as many people as we can.”
Among the decisions made at the meeting was to set the number of available licenses at 75, which is believed to accommodate all households currently keeping chickens in their yards.
Other rules include limiting the number per household to 20, banning roosters, requiring registration with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, imposing annual inspections by the city, and allowing ducks and quail to be included in the maximum number of birds.
Apart from grandfathering in current chicken owners, the rules would limit any household without chickens to being directly bordered by no more than two new license holders in the future.
“You have to have a heart for the people that have no skin in the game as far as chickens go,” Ludvigsen told the crowd.
Ward 4 Council Member Danielle Dash said she would have preferred chicken owners to have shared more input on specific limitations during public comment rather than a blanket objection to the process.
“I feel like we showed our cards, but yet it’s always the same — ‘We don’t want any rules. Leave us alone,’” she said.
Practicing attorney and Ward 4 Council Member Wendy Morgan-Adams echoed the point.
“So right now you’re all in violation,” she said. “You’re all doing things illegally. We’re trying to help you be legal. We have to have an ordinance. We have to have regulations and we have to have restrictions.”
Staff were directed to draft an ordinance that will receive a first reading and further discussion at 6:30 p.m. Monday at city hall, 8 N. Elmhurst Road. Final approval could occur Monday, June 23.