- December 4, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council has decided to move forward with legalizing chickens in Palm Coast, in a limited capacity.
The city has been running a pilot program for the last six months to gauge both the interest and the logistical requirements of allowing limited ownership of chickens within residential neighborhoods in the city. The pilot program issued 21 of its available 50 permits over the last six months.
Code Enforcement Director Barbara Grossman said the city received some complaints about the chickens, but most of them were either easily resolved or noise complaints.
The council decided to extend the pilot program for another two months while a draft of an ordinance is finalized. The council will review and vote on the ordinance allowing backyard chickens at a December council meeting.
The ordinance would replicate the requirements outlined in the pilot program: a limit of four chickens, banning roosters, set-back requirements, coop cleanliness and size requirements and a fencing requirement. Permitted chickens and coops also must be inspected by animal control officers.
A permit costs $50 and the permit would be renewed every two years.
The council also decided to up the number of allowed permits to 100 from 50, if it is approved in December.
Palm Coast resident Nathan Phelps, who runs the Palm Coast Chicken Alliance Facebook page, said residents who want chickens but did not apply for the program had a few concerns that could be addressed. The paperwork and application process was also “a lot of hoops to jump through,” he said for a legal pet. Others, he said, felt only four chickens was not enough to supply eggs for families.
Another was the concern that renters would not be able to have them – the ordinance would allow it, but the homeowner would have to approve it and sign off on the paperwork.
Councilman Charles Gambaro said he was initially against passing an ordinance allowing chickens because of the lack of interest in the permit program, but said Phelps’ comments helped put it in perspective.
