The Dorr Township Planning Commission wants to have a public hearing as early as Aug. 16 on a series of ordinance revisions that includes rules on keeping chickens in residential areas.

The Plan Commission Tuesday night met with Ordinance Administrator Kirk Scharphorn for a final look at revisions members and Planner Tim Johnson have been working on now for the loast six months.

The current local ordinance permits chickens only on land zoned agricultural. But some residents have asked the Township Board why they can’t keep chickens on their properties.

Resident Kevin Maurer asked the board earlier this year, “I want to know why people can’t keep chickens in Dorr?”

Supervisor Jeff Miling at that meeting said the regulations were included in an ordinance adopted in bygone years, but he’d be willing to have them examined and perhaps even changed, if necessary.

Maurer told the board chickens are allowed in cities such as Grand Rapids and East Grand Rapids and he couldn’t see the wisdom in forbidding them in a rural township such as Dorr. Urban farming is becoming more popular lately as well.

“It’s a statement about who we are and what needs to be addressed,” he asserted.

The Planning Commission said a deadline would have to be met on publishing notification of the hearing and the Township Board will be asked for permission to do so at its July 28 meeting.

Scharphorn said the issue of keeping chickens on residential property easily is the subject of most common complaints he receives.

“I’ll bet I’ve written 10 letters (asking residents to cease and desist) this year on chickens. I do have a considerable number of calls.”

Plan Commission Chairman Bob Wagner said clarification is sorely needed, noting that under the current ordinance he is legal to keep chickens but three neighbors are keeping their illegally.

“I don’t think this chicken thing is going to go away, so we need to address this,” Wagner commented.

Scharphorn also noted that chickens are easy to be but because places as close as Family, Farm and Home in Wayland sell chicks.

He added the most common complaints are about the noise made by roosters and the animals running freely in neighbors’ yards.

“People want the eggs,” he said.

The idea is to adopt an ordinance change that would spell out the conditions under which chickens could legally be kept. Scharhorn and some commission members said they’d be in favor of four to six.

Wagner said he didn’t want this issue to drag on for long and Scharphorn noted it took Jamestown Township a year and a half to come to an agreement.

If the Plan Commission cannot have the public hearing on Aug. 16, it will take place in September. The hearing not only will be about chickens, but also the ordinance revisions that have been worked out by Johnson and the membership over the past six months to bring them more up to date.