Morton Grove village trustees heard a request to permit chickens in backyards Monday.
Michael Yousef, a 32-year-old husband and father, told them he's been avidly following online chicken enthusiast groups, and would like to see Morton Grove join the list of other suburbs, such as Glenview, Northbrook, Northfield, Deerfield, Winnetka and Evanston, which permit residents to keep chickens.
"To say it’s becoming more of a trend is a huge understatement," he said. "It’s very near and dear to my heart to make this happen."
He said he'd like to do all he can to help chicken enthusiasts keep chickens.
Ticking off the reasons, he cited that chickens make good pets, and are cleaner than many animals now allowed as pets, such as guinea pigs, mice, reptiles and snakes.
Chickens are also provide a source of eggs, he said, and residents can know what's in those eggs because they'll be doing the feeding.
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Residents would have to apply to the village for permits to keep their fowl in backyard chicken coops, and village inspectors would have to visit backyards to ensure the coops met the village's conditions, he said.
"The chickens would not be free to roam..." he said, "but confined simply to the coop and special chicken run, which is plenty of space for them to live a normal life."
Chicken owners would have to meet certain standards, including cleanliness, or forfeit the right to keep the birds, he said. The coops would also have to be warm and dry.
Yousef made his comments during the public comment portion of the village board meeting. He ended by saying he felt encouraged by his conversation with Mayor Dan DiMaria last week, and DiMaria spoke to him after the meeting.
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