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Senate committee hears bill to let residents in planned communities garden and keep hens; beekeeping debated
Summary
Senate Bill 59 would void HOA or covenant restrictions that bar gardening, hen keeping or beekeeping where the municipality allows those uses; supporters framed it as property-rights and food access, while HOA representatives warned of safety, sanitation and governance concerns. The committee held public testimony but took no vote.
Madam Chair Pham opened a public hearing on Senate Bill 59 on Feb. 10, 2025, which would make void and unenforceable any provision in a planned community’s governing documents that prohibits or restricts gardening, hen keeping or beekeeping where the municipality already allows those activities.
The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Cedric Hayden, said the measure mirrors municipal models that allow small-scale hen keeping and regulated beekeeping and argued it would let homeowners in planned communities exercise the same practices as other city residents. “If you live in a municipality that allows this, your homeowner association would have to adopt those rules,” Hayden said, adding that HOAs may “stack their own regulations on top of it.”
Supporters and opponents framed the issue as a balance between expanding access to food…
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