Still Friends: Chickens Divide Darien Neighbors

DARIEN, IL – Darien resident Dennis Johnson called his next-door neighbor a friend.

But he said he opposed his neighbor's request for a chicken coop.

At a Darien public meeting, David Mekhiel, who lives in the 2200 block of Carlow Drive in the Tara Hill subdivision, requested an exemption from chicken coop regulations.

Rather than a fence around his entire backyard, Mekhiel asked to fence the area immediately surrounding the coop.

In 2020, the city enacted regulations to address disputes between supporters and opponents of chicken coops.

In one case, two neighbors no longer got along after one of them built a coop.

In the latest case, the city said it got a complaint about Mekhiel's coop.

On Monday, the City Council's Municipal Services Committee took up Mekhiel's request.

"I hate to be here. David is a friend," next-door neighbor Johnson said. "We're going to continue to be friends after this."

But he said his family hears and smells the chickens. And he contended the coop would dominate the view from their patio.

Mekhiel's other next-door neighbors, Al and Vicki Garringer, supported the coop. They said a fence required under Darien regulations would be a big distraction and lower property values.

"A privacy fence would be useless," Al Garringer said.

Darien's boundary divides Mekhiel's home from the Garringers, who live in an unincorporated area.

"We hear goats in the unincorporated area," Vicki Garringer said.

The committee approved Mekhiel's request. The next step is the full City Council.

The panel also signed off on a similar request on the other side of the same subdivision, in the 2200 block of Donegal Drive.

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

No one objected, and the committee approved the request.

The city discovered the coop when a neighbor complained about the noises of a rooster. Roosters aren't allowed.