Darien Coop Had Loud Rooster, But No More: City

DARIEN, IL – A Darien resident once had a loud rooster in a coop that was in "complete disrepair," but it is better managed now, an official said this week.

Alderwoman Mary Sullivan lives down the street from the coop on Donegal Drive, which is in the Tara Hill neighborhood.

She remembered hearing the rooster, which the city code does not allow.

These days, she said, the chickens are better contained.

Resident Ananta Pandit requested an exception from the requirement for fencing around the entire backyard because of a coop. The resident sought a fence for the area of the coop.

No one in the subdivision publicly objected to the request.

But Sullivan said the lack of an outcry doesn't mean the request was fine.

"A lot of people are hesitant, especially when it's a neighbor thing," Sullivan said. "They don't want to upset their neighbor. They don't want to go on the record. I have talked to neighbors about this. Right now, they feel that it's a lot better than it was."

Six years ago, the city enacted regulations for chicken coops. At the time, one neighborhood situation involving chickens got particularly contentious.

Sullivan said she was concerned about making exceptions because others had undergone the expense of putting up fences around their entire backyards.

"They didn't come in appealing not to do that," she said.

But Alderman Thomas Belczak defended the exception.

"The spirit of our ordinance was to protect neighbors from seeing chickens if they didn't want to see chickens," he said. "This ordinance does the same thing. Whether it's around the whole yard or whether it's around a portion of the yard, we have the same goal in mind, and we're hitting that goal."

The City Council, including Sullivan, voted unanimously for the exception.

The city is also considering a similar request from David Mekhiel, a resident in the same subdivision. His neighbors are split over his fence proposal for a chicken coop.

The matter is also expected to go to the council.