When the weather heats up and people in Johnson County start looking for new projects, questions about backyard chickens start popping up. In Johnson County, the rules for owning backyard chickens varies from city to city, which can cause confusion for both residents and city officials. For example, the City of Leawood strictly prohibits the ownership of backyard chickens, while officials with the City of Shawnee look at it as something that encourages empathy and responsibility. “We’ve had awesome luck with it,” said Scott Hunter, community service officer for the Shawnee Police Department. In Lenexa, livestock and poultry are permitted in three zoning districts — Agricultural (AG), Residential Estate (RE) and Planned Residential Estate (RPE). This means most subdivisions in the city, which are zoned for single-family residential, are prohibited. A recent Facebook post by the City of Lenexa stating backyard chicken restrictions caused uproar with some residents. It’s not unusual for this kind of confusion to happen, and the city is happy to talk with residents about it, said Lenexa Planning Manager Stephanie Kisler. “It’s pretty clearly on our website, and then, the city code: The policy is that not every property can have chickens,” she said. “It’s probably just some education that’s needed. That’s why we tried to make a really great new webpage with some code information kind of summarized on that page and linking to the actual code itself.” The acceptance of backyard chickens in Johnson County continues to evolve.
Source: Johnson County Post
