The Gloucester Planning Commission supported a code amendment to allow keeping chickens in the single-family detached residential (SF-1) zoning district Thursday night. The matter now heads on to the county supervisors.

Chickens were already allowed under the “keeping livestock” regulations in other residential districts in the county, planner Tripp Little said, including the C-2, SC-2, R-1 and R-2 zoning districts.

As proposed, chickens are the only livestock that will be allowed in the SF-1 district, Little said.

The proposed ordinance prohibits the keeping of roosters, and limits the number of female chickens that may be kept on lots smaller than two acres in the SF-1 district. Little said that means homeowners in SF-1 cannot keep guinea hens, turkeys or peacocks.

During a public hearing in a frigid old courthouse—the heat wasn’t working on a brutally cold night—only two people spoke about the chicken-keeping matter. Julia Yarborough asked the commission to support the measure, stating she has several chickens on her one-acre property at Hayes, which provide healthful eggs for herself and her children and a source of compost for the garden.

Meanwhile, Howard Mowry of Gloucester Point said that many Gloucester parcels would qualify to have chickens on them, which might need “chicken police” to control them.

The commission also held a public hearing related to modifying the zoning ordinance related to garage apartments and cottages.

As proposed, a new definition would be added to the ordinance for accessory apartment to include attached or detached accessory dwelling units used exclusively by the owners of the principal residential or their family members or guests.

The ordinance removes the cap of 1,200 square feet for an accessory structure, a public notice said, and allows such an apartment to be 800 square feet or 35 percent of the principal dwelling unit, whichever is greater.

The commission tabled action on that matter until its March meeting.

Following a separate hearing, the commission supported a rezoning request for Zandler Coleman’s Crossing, LLC (owner) to amend the county’s zoning map to reclassify approximately 3.8 acres from B-1, Business, conditional, to B-2, Village Business, conditional.

The principal purpose of the application is to allow for mixed-use development of the commercial portion of the project, rather than strictly business uses as was approved by the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 20, 2009, a notice said.

Charles Records, one of the principals in the development, said they now plan to have 10 smaller buildings to house commercial uses, instead of the original plan of four, larger buildings on the portion of the property they originally planned for commercial uses. Records said the commercial buildings would have two floors, with businesses on the ground floor and professional offices or residential apartments on the second floor.

The commission also endorsed a minor modification to the zoning district line between the existing B-1 (proposed B-2) and MF-1 portions of the property, which is located in the Gloucester Point Magisterial District on the west side of George Washington Memorial Highway and partially adjacent to Crewe Road at Hayes. The property lies within the county’s Development District, a notice said, and the Gloucester Point/Hayes Development Plan identifies this as Hayes’ core area to incorporate a variety of land uses.

Records said that the developers plan to begin construction on the first commercial buildings in April.