Red Bank Considering New Ordinance to Allow More Residents to Own Chickens

Red Bank city hall.

RED BANK, Tenn. (WDEF)- The Red Bank Board of Commissioners have voted on changing requirements for citizens to be able to own chickens in their backyards.

These new requirements would eliminate the acreage requirement in order to own a chicken.

The current rule states a property owner must have half an acre of land.

Most people under the current rules are ineligible to own chickens due to not having enough land.

Hollie Berry, the Mayor of Red Bank, said that, “We have had a lot of inquiries and most of those inquiries didn’t go anywhere because the residents who were hoping to keep backyard chickens had less than half an acre. That’s not surprising, the average lot size in Red Bank is a third of an acre only. Half acre lots and above are 50 percent or less of the residential lots in our city.”

There will still be other requirements in keeping chickens in backyards including having at least 25 feet of buffer between a coop and a neighboring yard, following numerous sanitation requirements, and only owning up to four hens.

This ordinance passed last night 3-2.

It will need to pass a second time before being enacted.

Any Red Bank citizen interested in owning a chicken in their backyard is urged to call City Hall who can walk you through all of the regulations and process an application to own a chicken.