Rock Island County, IL Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 154.131(B) of the Rock Island County Code of Ordinances permits livestock as a principal use in the SE-1 Suburban Estates Low Density District, but only 'not less than 100 feet from residentially zoned private property.' Section 154.130(B) explains why this district carries that allowance when others do not: 'the primary difference between the SE-1 and the SE-2 Districts is lot size and the allowance of livestock,' meaning SE-2 Suburban Estates Medium Density does not permit livestock keeping the way SE-1 does. The county's definitions section, Section 154.006, classifies FARM ANIMALS into three tiers: large animals such as horses and cattle, medium animals such as sheep and goats, and small animals including rabbits, chinchillas, chickens, turkeys, pheasants, geese, ducks, and pigeons, and defines them as animals 'other than household pets' kept for commercial production and sale, family food production, education, or recreation.

A separate provision, Section 154.006's FARMING definition, ties the raising of farm poultry and farm animals on agricultural land to Illinois Environmental Protection Agency regulation of feeding and raising practices. The county's stand-alone Chapter 157, titled Urban Chickens, was added by Ordinance 2025-02, passed October 1, 2025, but as codified in this text the chapter is a placeholder awaiting the incorporated ordinance text, so no separate urban-chicken standard is yet available to quote; livestock keeping in the unincorporated county is governed instead by the district-specific rules like Section 154.131(B).

Livestock in the AG-1 and AG-2 Agricultural Districts is addressed differently, as part of the broader 'Agriculture' and 'Uses customarily accessory to farm operations' permitted-use categories under Sections 154.091 and 154.111, without the SE-1 district's explicit 100-foot figure.