Champaign County committee approves zoning limits on backyard livestock near home‑rule cities

The Champaign County Environment and Land Use Committee on an evening in January approved a proposed zoning text amendment to regulate the keeping of animals in residential districts located within 1,000 feet of a home‑rule municipality.

The amendment narrows what animals and how many may be kept in those affected residential areas and sets odor and sale restrictions; committee members described the change as a compromise between allowing small‑scale urban agriculture and protecting established residential neighborhoods.

At public comment, Champaign Township Supervisor Norman Davis said the proposed rules were needed to stop farm animals and associated noise and odor from spreading into denser residential areas. “These behaviors belong on a farm and with some distance between homes,” Davis said, adding that roosters and recent introductions of hogs had aggravated neighbors and prompted earlier enforcement action.

Sev…