Conway considers letting residents keep chickens on 20-acre lots

Conway’s next chicken debate is not really about small backyards. The proposal under consideration would allow chickens, ducks, turkeys, horses, donkeys, pigs, sheep and other fowl only on single-family lots of at least 20 acres, which means the people who would benefit are owners of very large parcels, not neighbors with a standard suburban lot.

That distinction matters because Conway’s zoning and land-development rules run through the Unified Development Ordinance, and the Planning Commission is the body that considers text amendments to that ordinance. City officials have also put a public-facing “Conway Critters” page on the city website, a sign that animal policy is already part of how Conway presents its planning work and services.

In practice, the proposal looks less like a backyard chicken ordinance and more like a broader rural-lot livestock policy. A change that lets 20-acre lots keep multiple kinds of animals would expand resident options far beyond hens in a coop, while still leaving smaller properties outside the fence line. Conway’s June 2026 public calendar also showed regular City Council and Planning & Development meetings, underscoring that the discussion is moving through the city’s normal land-use process rather than sitting as a one-off idea.

Conway has dealt with chicken policy before, but in a much narrower way. In 2017, Conway City Council approved first reading of an ordinance that would allow chickens on school and college grounds for educational purposes after Conway High School officials asked for permission to support an agricultural program. That earlier move treated chickens as an instructional tool on institutional land, while the current proposal points squarely at private property owners with acreage to spare.

For backyard chicken keepers hoping Conway might someday loosen the rules for smaller lots, that is the real takeaway. This proposal opens the door for rural-style animal keeping on 20-acre tracts, but it does not come close to changing the game for the typical henhouse in town.