Backyard chickens and livestock are governed by each Atlantic County municipality's zoning ordinance, which sets lot-size and coop-setback rules. New Jersey's Right to Farm Act protects commercial farms on qualifying land from being zoned out, even where residential rules would otherwise restrict animals.
Whether a household may keep hens is a municipal zoning question in Atlantic County, not a state or county one. The county's Pinelands interior, including Hamilton Township, Galloway, Egg Harbor Township, and Hammonton, the self-styled blueberry capital, generally allows chickens and livestock subject to minimum lot size and coop-setback distances, while the built-out barrier islands of Atlantic City, Ventnor, and Margate bar them on tight lots. Above the local rules sits the New Jersey Right to Farm Act, N.J.S.A. 4:1C-1 et seq., which shields a commercial farm on qualifying, assessed farmland from local ordinances that would prohibit ordinary agricultural operations. Pinelands agricultural land can also fall under the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan.
Keeping poultry or livestock against the municipal zoning ordinance draws a zoning-enforcement notice and fines. Commercial farms qualifying under the Right to Farm Act are protected from ordinances that would ban their operations.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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