Clarkstown, NY Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 290-20K, part of the Town's additional bulk regulations, lets a homeowner in the R-160, R-80, R-40, R-22, R-15 or R-10 Zoning Districts keep domestic animals for individual domestic purposes as a matter of right, without a special permit application to the Zoning Board of Appeals, so long as the numeric caps are met. The section allows no more than one horse or cow per acre of lot area and caps fowl at 25 per lot regardless of acreage. Pigs are carved out of the allowance entirely: the opening clause permits 'domestic animals (except pigs)', so hog-keeping isn't authorized under this subsection at all in these districts.

Any structure that houses livestock or fowl, such as a coop, barn or pen, has to sit at least 50 feet from every lot line, and the same 50-foot buffer applies to manure and other odor- or dust-producing animal waste storage, measured from lot lines, watercourses and wetlands alike; the only carved-out exception is spraying or dusting done to protect vegetation. Cats and dogs are exempt from the 50-foot housing setback, since the section separately caps their numbers rather than requiring them to be penned. Larger-scale or commercial livestock operations fall instead under § 290-17's special-permit uses and the § 290-18 prohibited-use list, which separately bars stockyards outright.