Sterling Heights, MI Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

01 of the Sterling Heights Zoning Ordinance lists the permitted uses in the R-60, R-70, R-80, R-90 and R-100 one-family residential districts, the zoning that covers nearly every single-family subdivision in the city. Subsection A allows one-family detached dwellings, and subsection B allows agriculture as a permitted use, but with a built-in size cutoff: on parcels of less than eight acres, there shall be no raising of livestock, fowl or other animals. Because the typical Sterling Heights lot runs a few thousand square feet, that eight-acre line eliminates backyard chickens, ducks, goats, rabbits raised as livestock, or any other farm animal on nearly every residential property in the city.

Chapter 8 of the general Code of Ordinances defines LIVESTOCK broadly, covering cattle, sheep, new world camelids, goats, bison, privately owned cervids, ratites, swine, equine, poultry, aquaculture, and rabbits, while carving out dogs and cats, which remain governed as domestic pets under separate leash and licensing rules, not this zoning limit. A landowner who assembles eight or more contiguous acres in an R-district can raise livestock or fowl as an accessory to agriculture without special approval, but anyone on a standard subdivision lot cannot, regardless of how the animals are housed or how few are kept. 01, and a property found in violation is subject to abatement as a public nuisance in addition to the fines described below.