PORTLAND, Maine - After a City Council vote Tuesday night, Lewiston will be joining several other cities in Maine that allow backyard chickens in their more urban residential zones.
Bangor prohibits chickens except in the city's rural residence and agricultural zones. But Lewiston's neighboring city of Auburn also allows hens, with some restrictions, as do Portland and South Portland, among others.
Lewiston will allow egg-laying hens on properties of about seven-tenths of an acre and more. City Councilor Michael Lachance voted for the measure. He says there were some concerns, including smells, mess, disease, and the possible impact of hens on more densely settled areas.
"As the ordinance is, they can't be free-roaming, they have to be penned," Lachance says, "so we can't have free-range chickens wandering the streets of Lewiston."
The new ordinance allows up to six hens - not roosters - on properties of 30,000 square feet or more, with no more than a single-family dwelling. It excludes the city's downtown and some industrial areas, and multi-unit buildings.
Proponents of the new rule had hoped it would apply to properties of 20,000 square feet or more - about half an acre. Lachance says the 30,000 square foot rule is better than no increase, but it leaves a lot of properties out.
