Residential Zoning Changes Make Room for Chickens

Call it YIMBY for chickens: In Mohave County, Arizona, chickens could soon be allowed on all properties zoned for residential use. Previously, chickens were only allowed on properties zoned for agricultural-residential and residential-recreation zoning districts.

Bill McMillen reports on the story as the Mohave County Board of Supervisors considers a zoning ordinance modeled on zoning changes recently approved by Bullhead City, one of the incorporated cities in the county.

“According to the proposed verbiage in the zoning amendment, chickens ‘shall be kept in an adequate enclosure that prevents them from roaming at large,’” explains McMillen.

There’s also a local control and state preemption angle to the story, after the State legislature has also recently been exploring the issue of backyard chickens and zoning codes.

“The proposed resolution for the zoning change cites a current proposal at the Arizona legislative level that would prohibit municipalities and counties from banning backyard chickens but authorizing those entities some latitude in regulating them,” reports McMillen. “That pending legislation, which has yet to come to a vote in the Senate, also was the basis for Bullhead City's zoning change.”