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Spencer County Fiscal Court sends poultry ordinance amendment to Planning & Zoning, backs 12 birds per acre with containment language
Summary
After public comment and extended debate, the court voted unanimously to ask Planning & Zoning to draft an amendment to Article V allowing up to 12 poultry/fowl per acre with a requirement that birds be contained to the owner's property.
The Spencer County Fiscal Court voted July 3 to forward a proposed amendment to Article V of the county zoning regulations to Planning & Zoning that would allow up to 12 poultry or fowl per acre in residential districts and require that birds be contained to the owner's property.
The change follows a lengthy public-comment period in which multiple residents urged relaxed limits for backyard flocks. Terri Cooper of the Spencer County Historical & Genealogical Society described restoration work at Little Mount Colored Cemetery and Carrithers Cemetery and earlier used the meeting to present the society's requests for other county support. During the poultry discussion, resident Tracy Duckett said, “one chicken per acre is not based on best poultry care,” and several residents argued that the county's largely rural character made more permissive rules reasonable.
County officials and magistrates discussed enforcement and neighbor disputes. Planning & Zoning Administrator Julie Sweazy said most poultry complaints are anonymous and are acted on only when a complaint triggers enforcement letters. Judge Executive Scott Travis clarified the rule does not apply inside Taylorsville city limits and noted that enforcement proceeds after a complaint is filed. He asked residents, by general consent, to prevent birds from fouling neighboring property: “everyone needs to keep their chickens from crapping on another neighbor's property.”
Magistrates debated whether to require confinement in a coop or simply require containment to the property. After discussion, Judge Travis moved and the court seconded a proposal to send an amendment to Planning & Zoning to allow 12 poultry/fowl per acre with added language that birds must be contained; the motion passed unanimously. County Attorney Corey Thomas advised the amendment would first go to Planning & Zoning for drafting.
The action does not itself change the zoning code; it is a referral asking Planning & Zoning to prepare ordinance language. Any final ordinance would return to the Fiscal Court for public notice and formal adoption. The court recorded the motion and vote and closed the public-comment portion of the agenda on the issue.
