Four Naperville chickens looking for a good home
Naperville resident David Laird is seeking a good home for four chickens.
Laird has until spring to reduce his flock from 12 to eight after city council members Tuesday approved a new set of rules for the keeping of chickens and livestock within city limits.
According to the newly approved rules, residents can have a maximum of eight chickens per property, must get a permit before constructing or modifying coops, and must keep such coops at least 30 feet from neighboring homes.
“There was going to be a compromise or there was going to be nothing,” Laird said after the new laws were passed. “This seems to be what the council has come up with to try to appease everyone.”
In October, council members opted not to limit or otherwise regulate the number of chickens residents can house. But Councilman Paul Hinterlong was absent at that meeting and asked to revisit the issue last month.
At that October meeting, city staff members proposed changes to local laws that would have instituted an $80 permit process, required screening or landscaping to hide chicken coops, and changed the original language to require the coops be clean at all times.
Neighbors on both sides of Laird's Rivanna Court residence have sought an all-out ban on the birds,
Laird said his coop began as a five-chicken 4-H project for his son and grew from there within the past three years. He now gets six eggs a day from his coop and the chickens each have names.
“I'm going to do everything in my power to comply with the rules,” he said.