Plymouth Township Prepares Draft Beekeeping Regulations

Plymouth Township staff have prepared a draft beekeeping ordinance, following last month regarding the issue.

As , the Shaffer family of 1435 Sandwood Drive, Conshohocken, installed two beehives in their backyard earlier this year, prompting neighbors to take their concerns over allergies, safety, and property values to Plymouth Council.

At a meeting in May, township staff acknowledged that while their hands were somewhat tied by state agricultural laws, they would be researching their options regarding beekeeping regulations.

"We have been working on this, and the first question is what can we do, and the second is what have other people done?" said solicitor Thomas Speers at the meeting. "What we are working on is lot size requirements and setback requirements, and we're trying to find reasonable numbers for that."

Speers and planning consultant Ken Amey presented those numbers at Monday's council workshop meeting.

"What I've done… is created a draft ordinance which would regulate beekeeping, and it's a very simple ordinance," said Amey.

Amey then presented the following five regulations:

1. Minimum of lot size of 30,000 square feet, or a little less than 3/4 of an acre.
2. Limit the number of hives to two.
3. All hives must be located in the rear yard and must be at least 50 feet from property lines.
4. There must be a six-foot high enclosing barrier to separate activity from adjoining properties.
5. All beekeeping must comply with Beekeepers Compliance Agreement, as propagated by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

While council did not take issue with any of the regulations, chair Sheldon Simpson suggested Amey and Speers might expand the regulations.

"Rather than the rear yard, could we have something in there regarding distance from a house?" asked Simpson. "I'd like to see 75 feet from [neighboring] houses."

Council also suggested that perhaps the regulation regarding lot size could be increased to something like an acre. While Amey said that they could look into the 75-foot regulation, he said the lot size was likely as large as they could make it, due to the composition of the township's zoning code.

A 30,000 square foot requirement would only allow the largest A residentially-zoned properties to keep bees, while most AA residential properties could do so. Making the lot requirement any larger would eliminate any A properties from beekeeping, therefore opening the ordinance up to challenges, staff said.

When questioned about the ordinance's vulnerability to legal challenges, Speers said he believed it would be highly defensible.

"Most of the challenges on bee ordinances have been where they have tried to declare it a nuisance, and it's almost impossible to declare anything that's agricultural as a public nuisance," said Speers. "That's why we put it in the zoning ordinance… it's much more defensible."

Speers compared the regulations to chicken and rooster ordinances, although he admitted that there was very little legal precedent in Montgomery County, or even the Commonwealth, regarding beekeeping ordinances.

Council said that public comment on the draft ordinance will be welcomed at this Monday's legislative meeting, and that the ordinance will likely appear for adoption in August.

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