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Urban chicken coop keepers in Philadelphia are hopeful that the city may overturn a 21-year-long ban on their backyard hens this year.

For North Philly native Maria Ayala, she anticipated that chickens would be permitted in a vacant lot that is used as a community garden designated by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

The lot spans the size of two row houses and sits in the middle of a quiet one-way street. She made sure to ask for permission to grow vegetables and flowers.

But after getting chickens as a gift, she built a coop for them a few months ago.

Her urban barnyard then grew to include a rooster, turkey, rabbits and a young goat.

It was to the delight of her 3-year-old son Nicholas and the neighborhood children who played with him after school.

“Everybody on the block signed a petition saying they were in love with the garden. After school all the children come here and they play with my son in the coops,” Ayala said. “We let everybody learn and explore [and] collect the eggs.”

She now has 60 eggs in her refrigerator and it helped her get through the period of sky-high egg prices a few months ago.

Against the law

Ayala doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of the law.

She’s been visited by ACCT Philadelphia already and is on the radar of Licenses and Inspections, likely racking up fines. To make the barnyard more palatable, she got rid of her roosters except for one and re-homed the turkey.

“We are trying our best to get permission. Anything we have to do to keep this going for the community,” she said.

L&I did not respond to a request for an interview for this news story.

She sees the hobby as a positive contribution to the neighborhood, which has struggled with drug activity and crime for decades.

She’s considering relocating the chickens to a community space that would be eligible for a zoning variance to comply with city rules if the law isn’t changed soon.

There are some exceptions in city code to the farm animal ban: chickens are allowed in some industrial districts, a slaughterhouse, a zoo, veterinary hospital, animal shelter, school or lab or a property with more than three acres. But they are not allowed to live in mixed industrial/residential districts.

The ban on farm animals dates back to 2004 but it was legal before then. Nearly all City Council seats have turned over in 21 years, with Republican Brian O’Neill, who was originally elected in 1980, being the only member who was on council when the ban was passed.

If another bill to overturn the ban were filed, it’d be the third attempt to do so in the past six years.

In 2019, then-City Councilmember Bobby Henon introduced legislation to allow hens within city limits, but it was unsuccessful.

In 2022, Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. pitched a bill to allow hens, but not roosters. That bill died in committee without a public hearing.

Chicken coop owners are pushing for Jones Jr. to reintroduce his bill again.

They’ve also lobbied Councilmembers Mark Squilla and Mike Driscoll to co-sponsor the bill. Nearly all City Council members contacted for this news story declined an interview request.

Councilmember Kendra Brooks said in a statement that she’s a supporter of urban agriculture but would want a law that balances the needs of neighbors and chicken coop owners.

“While most of my efforts have focused on community gardens, I understand that raising chickens has cultural significance and economic benefits for many communities in our city,” Brooks said. “Any legislation on this issue must strike a balance between advancing urban agriculture and addressing the concerns of neighbors in the community.”

City Council President Kenyatta Johnson’s spokesperson Vincent Thompson told WHYY News he’s not aware of any pending legislation before council begins its summer recess in mid-June.

A path towards legalization

In Northeast Philly, homeowner Andrea Rose built a chicken coop that she thought was legal because she used Councilmember Jones’ ordinance as the guideline.

She had six egg-laying hens inside an enclosed coop with at least 1 square foot per chicken and a chicken run of 2 square feet per chicken.

“We are very responsible and our chickens are loving. We hope that they will reconsider because they’re harmless,” Rose said. “They don’t bark and they don’t bite. When they’re cared for properly they don’t carry diseases and they can provide nourishment for your family.”

Growing up, her grandfather had chickens and pheasants and was a pigeoneer, with homing pigeons in the Northeast. She dreamed of getting her own chickens for years but thought she’d wait until she could buy a house with 10 acres. However, with housing prices where they are, she simply couldn’t afford it.

“With the housing markets, that’s not accessible anymore,” she said, adding that even 3 acres is too expensive for her so she gardens and tends to the backyard coop.

Rose said it’s ironic that horses are permitted within city limits but chickens are banned.

For example, Philadelphia law requires that horses must have a quarter of an acre of space with a gated enclosure to prevent escape.

“I always make the joke that I’m going to get a horse. How they are able to be legal in such small conditions and chickens aren’t is like, mind boggling to me,” she said. “They require so much more food, more clean up. But I think there’s room for both to be accessible and legal in Philadelphia.”