Washington’s Planning Board is weighing in on Washington residents having chickens.

The board discussed the matter during its meeting Tuesday. That discussion came after the City Council, at a meeting in November 2017, said it wanted time to analyze a proposed amendment to the city code that would allow city residents to keep certain “farm” animals inside the city limits. The council decided it wants to closely examine the proposal and find out how other cities address residents having farm animals. The council also made it clear it wants to first focus on the part of the proposal dealing with chickens (and other fowl such as ducks and geese) before turning its attention to farm animals such as horses.

The council had planned to revisit the issue at its Jan. 8 meeting, but that did not occur.

“They made a recommendation to City Council to reduce the 100 (setback) to 50, the setback from residential properties and to allow them (chickens) in the city limits,” said Glenn Moore, a city planner who attended the board’s meeting.

The board’s action came after Emma Wood, a proponent of chickens in the city, requested that the proposed minimum distance between chicken coops and residences be 50 feet, according to a memorandum from John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural resources, to the mayor and council members. Rodman informed Wood the Planning Board would have to recommend to the council that a smaller distance between chicken coops and residences be allowed.

Under the proposed modifications being recommended to the council by the board, anyone keeping domestic fowl (chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks and the like) in the city would be required to obtain a permit from the city, with that permit renewed annually. Permits may be revoked if conditions of the permit and/or the zoning rules are violated.

Those recommended changes to the city’s animal regulations would allow a city resident to keep up to 10 “domestic female chickens on one lot, but roosters would not be allowed.

The chickens could not run at large, but would have to be kept in a “suitable” chicken house or coop, which would have to be cleaned at least twice a week. Waste material from the coop must be hauled away or disposed of on-site in a manner that does not cause a bad odor and attract flies, according to the proposed amendment.