More than a decade in the making, an Animal Keeping Ordinance was passed by Detroit City Council in late 2024 and took effect on January 31, 2025.
As the weather warms this spring, the city may see an uptick in people applying for licenses to keep backyard chickens, ducks and bees.
Resilient Neighborhoods Project Editor Melinda Clynes interviewed Amy Kuras, research and policy program manager at Detroit Food Policy Council, on how the ordinance took shape and what it means for neighborhoods.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
What does the Detroit Keeping Animal Ordinance outline?
Depending on the size of lot, people can have between six and 12 chickens or ducks, so a total of no more than 12 fowl. There are restrictions, like setback from neighbors, a proper coop and fencing so they can't go wandering around the neighborhood.
It's allowing something that, quite honestly, people have been doing for a while. But now, they have to show proof that they've notified adjacent neighbors, get a license and tag the birds.
Bees are subject to a little less regulation, but you can have up to six hives; up to 12 if you have an urban farm.
What unit of city government actually passed the ordinance?
It was the Detroit City Council. There are basically two ordinances. One went through changing the zoning code process, which had to do with setbacks and structures. The other went through the public health and safety committee, and that had to do with the animal control issues – tagging, licensing, treatment of the animals. It was really two ordinances that covered both zoning and animals, but is broadly referred to as a single ordinance.
How long was the work for this underway?
Quite a while.
In 2013, the city was working on passing an urban agricultural ordinance because urban farmers were using vacant lots in their neighborhood or purchasing their side lot to farm. The city code hadn't been updated to really have a place for farming.
At the time, the animal stuff was in that ordinance, but it ended up being a big point of contention, so it was taken out with the idea that it would be passed later as a separate ordinance.
In 2016, the planning commission began reviewing the animal keeper ordinance and had some questions. It got kicked back to the law department. Because of different reasons – change in administration and change in the management of animal control shifting on a regular basis – it fizzled out for a while.
At the end of 2021, Kathryn Underwood, a founding member of Detroit Food Policy Council and a city planner, was retiring and she didn’t want the ordinance die. She handed it off to a colleague of hers, Kimani Jeffrey. We began meeting regularly with Kimani and a group of animal keepers and Jai Singletary, who is the senior policy analyst in James Tate's office, to refine the language in the ordinance. James Tate was a champion of this ordinance. Detroit Food Policy facilitated the Animal Keepers Group through 2022.
What happened next?
Over the course of 2023, the city held a series of listening sessions on the westside, eastside, and central/southwest and one virtual to hear from the community what they thought about this ordinance and to demonstrate what was planned. Those went well, except for the one in southwest.
There's a very organized group of residents there. It is the most polluted zip code in the city. They have had to be well-organized to keep their neighborhood together. They did not like this ordinance, so they showed up at that meeting en masse.
Our group was, quite frankly, caught flat-footed. But a person from our group of animal keepers, Renee Wallace, who works for Food Plus Detroit and was instrumental in drafting the ordinance, met with these folks and heard their concerns, which were valid, and she agreed with them about bringing those to the city.
We ramped up our organization and engagement as it was being talked about publicly. After the listening sessions, the ordinance was presented to city council members, so they could learn about it, study it, and form their opinion before voting. We also testified at a planning commission meeting, as the commission was deciding whether or not to recommend it for passage. The planning commission ultimately recommended it to pass the city council. And then it was off to the races.
What was Detroit Food Policy’s role throughout the process?
Detroit Food Policy Council served as convener and communicator and did a lot around messaging and organizing everybody to get to the planning meetings. We drafted a letter with the Animal Keepers Group that growers could sign, so people who were potentially interested in being animal keepers could lend support. It was signed by 68 people already involved in agriculture.
We also drafted a letter that was for anybody in the city to sign. People all over the city promoted that letter heavily. We ended up with over 500 signatures of people from every council district who wanted to lend their name in support of the ordinance. That was very effective in terms of convincing city council to vote for it.
Who were the other main players?
Keep Growing Detroit did a lot and was very involved. They already have chicken and duck classes, and they are the premier urban farming organization in the city.
Also, Mark Covington from
Georgia Street Community Garden was really active and attended meetings. Mark is a responsible animal keeper. He involves people in the neighborhood in his farm and teaches kids how to take care of the animals. He's well-respected, and the fact that he was behind this was helpful.
Renee Wallace with FoodPLUS Detroit, going back to the early 2010s, helped to draft the language in this ordinance and get community feedback. She created these interesting statistical models about what might happen depending on different variables in the ordinance, like how many people might start keeping animals, and worked very closely with the city. She was their main point of contact around the ordinance language.
Tiffany Pilson, a chicken keeper, spoke at meetings and presented at listening sessions in 2023. She was a good spokesperson to represent animal keepers – very engaging and cool.
In the end, what does this ordinance mean for neighborhoods and neighborhood residents?
People who were interested in keeping chickens are now able to do that and do it properly. For people who are already doing it, it offers a layer of protection against getting their animals taken, and they can breathe a little easier because they can get that license and know their chickens will be fine.
It also sets standards, like a coop has to be this big for the animals. It has to be this far from the fence. It has to have this level of enclosure. Feed must be in rodent proof containers off the ground. The majority of people were already doing these things; the animal keeping community here is generally responsible and community minded.
But for some people who were not following best practices, this enshrines that now in zoning. It offers a lot of protections for the neighbors of people who are keeping animals because there are standards. It means the chicken feed is not going to attract rats; chickens aren't going to be wandering into your yard because there is proper fencing.
Do you feel like the Animal Keeping Ordinance supports food security?
Absolutely.
The pandemic showed us and now all this madness, including bird flu, is showing us that the commercial industrial food system is not something you can regularly rely on. Eggs were expensive then and now. Food sourcing locally allows people to impact their own individual family food security. They can slaughter a chicken and get meals out of that. They can feed themselves, and their families and friends, the eggs from their chickens for a reliable source of protein.
Localizing the food system helps insulate people from these big shocks that we're going through right now. You're not paying tariffs on something grown in your own backyard or three blocks away. It is really important to city food security to be able to have a thriving agriculture community, including animals for people who choose to eat them or their products.
Resilient Neighborhoods is a reporting and engagement series examining how Detroit residents and community development organizations work together to strengthen local neighborhoods. It's made possible with funding from The Kresge Foundation.