I am writing to request the City Council/ City planning board revise the current Citrus Heights City Code to allow residents in single family homes to keep chickens. The current city code includes fowl/poultry in the ordinance for keeping livestock under 75 pounds, and only allows chickens if the property is 10,000 square feet or larger. When the City of Citrus Heights became a city, January 1, 1997, they adopted the same livestock municipal code that we had in Unincorporated Sacramento County prior to our incorporation. It is time for these codes to be reviewed to better meet the needs of our residents. Many of the cities around us have recently modified their codes to allow poultry in residential neighborhoods. In fact, Citrus Heights has some of the least “backyard chicken friendly” animal ordinances in the area. Section 8-47 of the Citrus Heights city code currently reads: ii. Small animal keeping. The minimum site area for the noncommercial,not-for-profit, keeping of small animals, of at least six months of age with a weight of less than 75 pounds at maturity, other than pets, as an incidental use, shall be 10,000 square feet; except that roosters shall be allowed only on a site of 20,000 square feet or larger, or within an RD-1 or RD-2 zoning district. In the code, chicken keeping is put in the same area as keeping livestock up to 75 pounds.  The average chicken weighs about 6 pounds.  I’m sure anyone can see there is a huge difference between keeping 10 small goats, or pigs, (about 750 pounds of animals) and keeping a coop with 10 chickens (about 60 pounds of animals). I would propose a change in the City Code, to enable people to keep chickens in smaller yards.  10,000 square feet is a huge area for 10 chickens.  Even 5,000 would be plenty of space for them. From Backyard Poultry magazine (Article By Byron Parker,Randall Burkey Company,Texas) : Because chickens spend most of their active time outside of the chicken coop, generally 2 – 3 square feet per chicken is sufficient space. Remember, you will need to provide space to roost at night and space for the nesting boxes. If you plan on keeping them cooped up full-time then 8 – 10 square feet per chicken would do, counting the outside run. In this case, more is always better. If you are planning on buying or building a mobile chicken coop, space requirement is minimized because it offers you the ability to frequently move the coop and chickens onto fresh ground. With the rise in popularity in raising chickens, and the rising price of eggs many residents would like to be allowed to keep hens. I would suggest a change in the code to allow one hen for every 1,000 square feet, or something similar. I would be happy to work with the planning department to develop an ordinance the makes sense for our community, and promotes independence and self-sufficiency for our residents.