After 18 months of debate, Prospect Heights adopts rules for backyard chickens

After 18 months of discussion and deliberation, Prospect Heights officials Monday set rules for the previously unregulated practice of residents keeping chickens on their property.

The move still had its critics, but the crowd of about a dozen people who attended the city council meeting Monday was much smaller than those attending previous hearings on the issue.

“People finally realized the council wasn’t saying no to chickens,” Mayor Patrick Ludvigsen said.

Advocates of the rules said the practice could no longer exist in the city without some restrictions. Building and Development Director Dan Peterson said resident complaints that surfaced in October 2023 couldn’t be ignored, leading city staff and the council to take action.

The new ordinance allows up to 75 licenses for homeowners wanting to raise chickens, with the presumption that’s enough to include every current owner. Ludvigsen said there’s no intent to make anyone stop their existing practice.

The new law, which allows a year before full enforcement, also limits owners to 20 hens and requires they give up roosters due to potential noise issues.

Other rules include requiring registration with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, annual inspections by the city, and the allowance of ducks and quail in the maximum number of birds.

Though current chicken owners will be grandfathered in, the regulations prevent any household without chickens from being directly bordered by more than two new license holders in the future.

Among the final pleas Monday was a request the city grandfather in existing roosters and hens in excess of the 20-bird limit, as well as doing away with the annual inspection.

“Some of these regulations you’re about to vote on are fear-based and not fact-based,” resident Niki Moylan told the council.

But no changes were made and the council approved the rules unanimously, with Ward 4 Council Member Wendy Morgan-Adams absent.

Resident Dom DiGianfilippo was the last to voice support for the ordinance, saying even a friend who owns chickens in rural Wisconsin suggested Prospect Heights’ regulations might allow too many birds for a suburban environment.

“I appreciate the council trying to regulate this,” he added.