We urge the city council to strike down the ban on backyard chickens in Muncie. We believe that allowing backyard chicken keeping is a small, but meaningful step toward enhancing the local food economy through improved diet choices, better use of available urban space, and allowing increased productive activity at the household level.

Many municipalities are overturning their unnecessary ordinances that outlaw city chicken keeping and instituting new rules that allow and limit chicken keeping. The four largest cities in the country, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, and major regional cities like Indianapolis, Cleveland, Toledo, St. Louis, Evansville, and Bloomington allow backyard chicken keeping.

We propose a new ordinance that limits the number of chickens per household to 8, keeps the ban on roosters, and mandates that coops be at least 20 feet from buildings on adjacent properties.

For more on the prospects of backyard chickens in Muncie, consult our paper "Welcoming Chickens Back to Town: Let's allow responsible chicken keeping in Muncie" which can be found at https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Byb4IjYtP5sqUXBFZEFYR252eW8

Urban Bird Muncie