Backyard chickens and livestock are governed by each Gloucester 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 Gloucester County, not a state or county one. The county's agricultural southeast, including Harrison Township, Franklin Township, and Monroe, generally allows chickens and livestock subject to minimum lot size and coop-setback distances, while denser areas of Deptford and Glassboro limit or bar them. 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. Roosters and odor can still be curbed as a nuisance under municipal health codes.
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.
Gloucester County, NJ
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