Burlington’s city council has given the city’s planning staff free range to develop a new policy that would enable the city’s residents to keep small flocks of hens in the back of their homes.
The council instructed staff to rough out this policy on Monday as a prelude to the potential legalization of “backyard chickens” within Bur-lington’s municipal limits.
At the moment, chickens and all other farm fowl are strictly forbidden in any part of the city that hasn’t been zoned for agricultural use. This prohibition remains in place despite a pandemic-era proposal to allow hens in residential areas, which narrowly failed to take flight with the city council in 2021…