Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
SOUTH OGDEN — Some in South Ogden have already been keeping backyard hens.
Now they'll be able to do it legally.
The South Ogden City Council last week voted to let residents maintain the egg-laying birds in their backyards after on-and-off debate in the Weber County city that dates to 2011.
"Chickens are allowed, but any other farm-type animals are prohibited," City Manager Matt Dixon said Monday. Still on the prohibited list are ducks and geese as well as larger critters like pigs, horses and cows.
South Ogden is one of the few cities in Weber and Davis counties that had not allowed backyard chickens, bird proponents say, along with Washington Terrace. Officials in Washington Terrace, though, are also debating the issue, and the city's Planning Commission on Thursday will take input from the public on the issue and consider a proposal.
"It came up as people wanting it," said Washington Terrace City Manager Tom Hanson. The discussion in both cities, the focus of prior debate, was relaunched last spring. But even in the absence of ordinances, residents in each locale maintained birds, according to city officials and bird backers.
Hanson senses split sentiments on the issue in Washington Terrace, and whether the Planning Commission recommends approval or denial of a bird ordinance, the Washington Terrace City Council will have the final say. The body should take the question up sometime in September, Hanson thinks.
The new South Ogden ordinance took effect with approval of the change, and the new guidelines base the number of allowable chickens on lot size. Lots measuring 4,000 to 6,000 square feet may have two chickens with the scale gradually increasing to homes on lots that are 12,001 square feet and larger, which may host up to eight chickens. Noisy roosters, as is the norm in locales that permit backyard chickens, are a no-no.
South Ogden previously debated the chicken issue in 2011 and 2015, opting against change each time. Ahead of last week's action, though, city polling found that 75% of respondents favored change allowing the birds, Dixon said.
Those wanting chickens in South Ogden will have to get permits, and other guidelines also apply. "There's no free-ranging. They have to have a run and have to provide a coop," Dixon said.
The Washington Terrace proposal reads that chickens, up to six of them, would only be allowed on residential lots measuring at least 20,000 square feet, a little less than half an acre.
