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Bangor staff says state law requires allowing chickens; board debates guardrails and limits
Summary
Planning staff told the board a new state law prevents municipalities from fully banning residential chicken keeping; the board discussed options including 1-acre minimums, hen-count limits, setbacks, certificates of occupancy, and safety standards.
City planning staff told the City of Bangor Planning Board on Aug. 4 that a new state law restricts municipalities from prohibiting chicken keeping in residential zones and recommended the board add "guardrails" in the land development code rather than an outright ban.
"There's a new state law out that requires that municipalities can't adopt an ordinance, prohibiting chicken keeping from residential zones," a staff member said, noting the board is revising the land development code and must align local rules with that law. Staff raised several options: imposing a 1-acre minimum lot size to effectively exclude chickens from urban areas, or instead using setbacks, coop construction standards and limits on the number of hens tied to lot size.
Staff pointed to examples in other communities such as Auburn and Portland that set hen-count limits based on lot size and said the board asked staff to reach out to those communities to learn how they calculated those limits. The staff member proposed requiring a certificate of occupancy for a coop and inspections by code enforcement and animal control to support enforcement.
Vice Chair Janet Jonas relayed practical owner concerns stressing electrical safety for winter coop heating and suggested language to reduce fire risk; staff agreed that electrical work could be required to meet the National Electrical Code. Board members also asked whether other domestic birds (ducks, quail, guinea fowl) should be treated differently; staff said those species could be restricted to rural zoning (for example, lots of 1.5 acres or more) because the statute's intent focused primarily on chickens in residential zones.
The board did not vote on an ordinance or regulatory text at the meeting; staff will research peer community limits and return with recommended code language and potential numeric limits for hens and setbacks.
