An ordinance eliminating the half-acre minimum lot size requirement for keeping backyard chickens passed in Red Bank by a final 3-2 vote of the City Commission.
Commissioners Pete Phillips and Jamie Fairbanks-Harvey voted no, as they did on the first vote.
“We have one code enforcement officer, and I think we’re pushing a lot on our staff here by allowing, you know, 70% of our residents to have chickens,” Phillips said before the vote at the commission’s Tuesday meeting. “There’s no way to enforce this.”
The city’s staff will be tasked with ensuring residents who keep chickens follow guidelines including acquiring and renewing permits and placing coops a minimum of 50 feet from Stringers Branch, Phillips said.
Staff will also have to deal with cases of chicken abuse, neglect and abandonment, he said.