No roosters allowed, and no more than 5 hens in residential zones
As the old saying goes: Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.
Once they are hatched, if you live in unincorporated Fayette County, you’d better keep an accurate count of them.
A proposed amendment before the Board of Commissioners would limit the number of hens allowed for residential use. It will be considered at the board’s July 28 regular meeting.
If approved, the new ordinance would allow up to three hens per principal dwelling unit, starting with a base size of one acre, and one additional hen for each additional acre up to a maximum of five hens. This would pertain to about 25 different residential zoning districts but not A-R (agricultural-residential).
Under the proposed ordinance, no roosters and no on-site slaughter would be allowed. Hen houses/coops are allowed in side and rear yards only and would be set back from all property lines a minimum of 50 feet. Hens would be contained on the lot, with the containment area in side and rear yards only and limited to no more than 40 percent of the lot.
At the board’s March 10 meeting Chairman Charles Oddo said he was in favor of staff and the Planning Commission reviewing the Zoning Ordinance to allow chickens in residential zoning districts. It was the consensus of the board at that time for staff and the Planning Commission to proceed.
The proposed amendments were approved unanimously by the Planning Commission.
Other public hearings on the July 28 agenda include a rezoning request from A-R and R-40 to PUD-PRD for 212.8 acres fronting on Ebenezer Church Road and Davis Road, to allow a 91-lot subdivision. Staff recommended approval with one condition, and the Planning Commission recommended approval at R-80 by a 3-2 vote.
Another rezoning request involves 38.995 acres in the same area from A-R to R-70 for a 17-lot subdivision. Staff recommended approval with two conditions, as did the Planning Commission by a unanimous vote.
Ordinances involving the proposed Starr’s Mill Historic Overlay District and Overlay Zone are again on the board’s agenda after discussion at two previous meetings.
A public hearing is scheduled to review proposed ordinance amendments involving deer processing facilities, wedding/event facilities and the parking of recreational vehicles in A-R zoning districts.
New business on the board’s agenda includes consideration of a possible annexation into Fayetteville of property at 1373 North SR 85 and an application to rezone that 5.89-acre site from A-R (agricultural-residential) to C-2 (community-commercial). County staff has reviewed the application and finds no grounds for a bona-fide land use objection as the Fayette County Future Land Use Plan designates the property as commercial.
The board will consider a recommendation to appoint Lavonia Stepherson to the McIntosh Trail Community Service Board for an unexpired term ending next June. Stepherson was re-appointed to the Hospital Authority last week.
Also under consideration is a staff recommendation to reduce the General Fund Flood Damage loan to the Stormwater Utility for projects associated with last December’s floods. A $997,529 loan was approved by the board in January to address emergency needs, identifying nine projects. Five have been completed and two other projects have since been identified. Some project costs have been adjusted, and the original $6,522,342 budget has been revised to $6,247,128 – a reduction of almost a quarter-million dollars.
The consent agenda includes acceptance of a $4,000 donation from Fellowship of Love Church for the library; a $911,900 bid award for asphalt concrete; and a $185,000 allocation of state grant funding for road improvements related to the December flooding.
