Des Plaines tentatively expands backyard chicken program
Des Plaines soon may be alive with the sound of clucking.
The city council on Monday tentatively agreed to ease restrictions on keeping chickens - hens only - in backyard coops and to allow more coops in town.
The move would convert a three-year pilot program that's set to expire next month into a permanent effort.
If the council gives the proposal a green light when it next meets on April 3, hen owners will be able to keep six birds instead of the current four. Additionally, a cap limiting the city to 100 coop permits would be scrapped.
Interest in backyard chickens has picked up over the last decade or so. Wheeling, Rolling Meadows, Elgin, Wauconda and Batavia are among the communities that have crafted regulations for coops.
Proponents say hens are a source of healthy and affordable eggs, provide environmental education and aren't as noisy as roosters, which aren't needed for egg production.
Among the city's rules:
• Permits require a one-time $35 fee.
• Chicken enclosures must be in fenced rear yards and not visible from the street.
• Enclosures must be at least five feet from property lines or other structures.
• Enclosures can't be larger than 100 square feet or more than 8 feet tall.
• Slaughtering chickens is prohibited.
• Roosters are forbidden.
"No one's going to get woken up at 4:30 a.m. by a rooster making noise," said Sixth Ward Alderman Malcolm Chester.
Chester said he opposed the pilot program a few years ago but now supports expanding the program because problems have been scarce.
Second Ward Alderman Colt Moylan spoke in favor of the program, too. He said his family is among the city's coop owners, and he called the experience "a delight."
"(They're) a nice addition to the family," he said of his hens.
No aldermen voted against the proposal.