Kingsport, TN Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Kingsport Code § 114-202(c)f allows chickens, rabbits, sheep and goats for the use of the residents of the premises only, and only as an accessory use in the UAE, Urban Agricultural Estate, zoning district. No more than 25 of any one combination of those fowl or animals can be kept on the premises. Chickens must be confined within an aviary or the like, or have their wings regularly clipped and be placed in an enclosed area with no overhead cover. One rooster is allowed for egg fertilization. Goats need a fenced area sufficient to prevent escape and a shelter within it.

Setbacks for housing are fixed. Any building, pen, coop, hutch or structure used to house such fowl or animals cannot sit closer than 35 feet to any boundary line of the premises or closer than 45 feet to any building containing a dwelling unit or accessory living quarters on the same premises. Under Sec. 114-202(g)(4), greenhouses, sheds, aviaries, coops, pens, hutches and similar structures top out at 16 feet in height. The district also requires a minimum lot area of 2 acres.

The same section handles larger stock. Horses and cattle are allowed for the residents only, at not more than one horse or cow for each one-half acre of the total legally fenced property. Pasture and grazing are permitted without feed lots, and where grazing land abuts residential property a fence between five and six feet high is required. Pigs are excluded: no animal of the Suidae family, including domesticated pigs, is allowed. Beekeeping is allowed at a maximum of eight hives per acre or portion thereof.

Outside the UAE district the picture is narrower. The A-1 Agricultural District lists commercial raising of livestock and poultry as a principal use, but the note to Sec. 114-181 bars that on a tract of less than five acres and keeps any structure housing poultry at least 200 feet from a property line. The R-1A accessory-use list in Sec. 114-182(b) names private garages, storage sheds, parking and private recreation, and Sec. 114-131(5) prohibits uses that are not specifically permitted or substantially similar to permitted uses.