Montville — A Montville woman has joined a fight to allow chickens as pets on small residential properties in town.

Residents in Montville, where zoning ordinances forbid farm animals on such properties, have long tried to change the rules to allow hens in their backyard.

Many in town already own hens despite no explicit regulations allowing them, according to Tara Crossley, who filed a request Tuesday for a change in the town zoning ordinance that would allow five hens per half-acre.

“I feel like the amendment to the ordinance is reasonable — enough people in Montville already are doing it under the radar,” she said.

Rules about backyard fowl as pets or egg producers vary by town, but people who support allowing them as pets — pets with benefits, as they eat ticks and produce eggs and manure for fertilizer — have had some zoning change successes in recent years.

In 2013, Stonington residents formed a group called Chicken Lovers Urge Change — CLUC*K — and successfully pushed that town’s Planning and Zoning Commission to approved a regulation allowing 10 hens on lots of more than 20,000 square feet, about a half-acre.

The same year, East Lyme’s zoning commission approved rules allowing up to six hens, but no roosters, in a fenced coop in the backyard in some residential neighborhoods.

Norwich residents can have four chickens or fewer on a residential property without needing a permit, but cannot place their coop within 100 feet of a property border.

In Waterford, chickens fall in a gray area — they are not forbidden in the zoning regulations, Planning Director Abby Piersall said Wednesday. But they’re not explicitly approved, either, so if someone complains about their neighbor’s chickens, the town’s zoning officer can issue a violation and fine the owner.

The proposal Crossley submitted in Montville would allow five hens per half-acre of land, and roosters as long as the chicken enthusiast gets permission from neighbors.

Crossley said Planning Department staff told her they will review her proposal, and the Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the ordinance change at an upcoming meeting.

Planning Department staff could not be reached for comment.

A group of residents, organized on Facebook, have made occasional attempts in the past several years to push for a new rule, and individual property owners unsuccessfully have applied for variances that would allow an exception for their backyard.

Members of the town board and opponents of the variances said they didn't want to set a precedent of allowing farm animals on small lots, and cited concerns about the chickens attratcting predators or contaminating well water.

Crossley wrote a draft of her proposed amendment and paid the $260 fee for submitting a zoning change proposal Tuesday. By Wednesday, she said allies on Facebook had contributed $170 to pay her back.

“They all chipped in,” Crossley said. “I was totally moved by that.”

Crossley said she will keep pushing for an ordinance change, even if her initial proposal is not passed.

“I’m not going to get bored with this,” she said. “Chickens are not big animals, and they’re confined to a small area. The kids love them, they are sweet pets.”

m.shanahan@theday.com