Vanderburgh County, IN Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Vanderburgh County's zoning code confines poultry and livestock raising to its most rural districts. 210, Use Group 18, lists 'Animal and poultry raising except in a Confined Feeding Operation' among the permitted uses in the A (Agricultural), AIR, and CON districts only, alongside boarding/breeding kennels, cattle and dairy ranches, livestock grazing, riding stables, and veterinary clinics under the same use group. Because these are the only districts where Use Group 18 uses are allowed by right, a homeowner keeping backyard chickens, ducks, goats, or other livestock in a C, R, or M district in unincorporated Vanderburgh County is outside the permitted use table and would need a rezoning or special use approval through the Evansville-Vanderburgh Area Plan Commission before the county will issue an Improvement Location Permit for the accessory structure.

This county code applies only to the unincorporated area; Evansville and Darmstadt, the county's two incorporated municipalities, enforce their own zoning even though the Area Plan Commission that drafts and administers county zoning is a joint city-county body. A boarding or breeding kennel, defined elsewhere in the code as a premises housing four or more small animals at least four months old, is likewise confined to Use Group 18 territory. Confined Feeding Operations are carved out of the general poultry/livestock allowance and instead face their own permitting track under Use Group 19, including a 25-acre minimum parcel size and a 1,320-foot residential separation distance.