The Board of Trustees is expected on Wednesday to fix the date on which Croton decides its animal-keeping rules. Resolution 180-2026, on the consent agenda, would schedule a public hearing for September 2 at 7 p.m. in the Georgianna Grant Meeting Room of the Stanley H. Kellerhouse Municipal Building, to consider adopting Local Law Introductory No. 10 of 2026. The resolution summarises the law in one clause: it would permit the keeping of domestic animals as pets, allow farm animals under certain conditions, and would prohibit the keeping of roosters and pigeons. What the draft would do The law rewrites Chapter 230 of the zoning code in four moves. It defines *domestic animals* — companion animals and pets, including cats, dogs, fish, parrots, rabbits and reptiles — and defines *farm animals* separately as animals customarily raised on a farm, a list that includes chickens, ducks, horses, cows, goats, sheep, pigs and donkeys. It empties the existing provision at Section 230-9.1 A(10)(f) and marks it Reserved. It then writes a new set of rules into Section 230-40 J. Under those rules, chickens and ducks would be permitted on a scale keyed to lot size, kept in clean, dry, secure enclosures, never allowed to roam free, with feed stored in rodent-proof containers. Coops could not sit within 25 feet of a lot line in the RA-5 and RB residence districts, or within 50 feet in every other residence district. Larger farm animals — goats and sheep, horses and other large animals, cattle, swine — would be confined to lots of two acres or more, with the required acreage adding up when animals are combined: the draft's own example is that two goats and one horse would need four acres. Barns and animal storage areas would have to stand at least 50 feet from each lot line and 300 feet from any neighbouring dwelling. The prohibition, and when it would take hold The fourth paragraph of that new section is one line long. It states that the keeping of roosters and pigeons shall be prohibited in all residence districts. The draft attached to Wednesday's agenda sets no date for that prohibition, offers no grandfathering for birds already kept, and provides no variance path. Its effective-date clause says the law takes effect immediately upon filing in the office of the New York State Secretary of State. On the schedule the resolution contemplates — a hearing on September 2, adoption possible at a later meeting, filing after that — the prohibition would begin to operate within days of the vote. Two versions of the same law are in circulation The copy in the August 19 packet carries the document control number 4904-5233-4776, v. 3, printed in the footer of every page. It is the same text the Planning Board reviewed on July 28. The copy that went to the Waterfront Advisory Committee in its July 8 packet carries a different control number, 4905-7596-8955, v. 1, and differs in three substantive ways. Roosters, described there as including cockerels, are prohibited immediately. A separate sentence then begins *Effective January 1, 2027* and prohibits the keeping or harboring of pigeons, geese and swans — a later date, and two more species. And it adds a fifth paragraph subjecting the section to the enforcement and penalty provisions at Sections 230-173 and 230-174, which the packet version does not carry. Neither packet says which text will go before the public. Resolution 180-2026 refers only to "Local Law Introductory No. 10 of 2026" without a version. What is verifiable is that the version travelling with the hearing resolution is v. 3 — the one with no phase-in. That distinction matters for anyone planning around it. A January 1, 2027 date was described in earlier discussion as giving keepers time to rehome or relocate birds. That date does not appear in the document the board is scheduling for hearing. What the current code permits Today, Section 230-9.1 A(10)(f) permits keeping domestic animals, except pigs, for individual domestic purposes or as pets, allowing up to three dogs over six months old and not more than 25 fowl, with animals other than dogs and cats kept at least 50 feet from any lot line. In June the Zoning Board of Appeals, asked to interpret the word *fowl*, read it as a bird of any kind. That reading is why keeping pigeons is lawful in Croton now, and it is the state of the law that Introductory No. 10 would replace. Three reviews, none of them about pigeons All three bodies the law was referred to have now reported back, and the responses are on the record. The Westchester County Planning Board answered on July 20 under its referral file CRO-26-004. Its letter describes the amendment as clarifying the rules on keeping animals, adding definitions of domestic and farm animals, setting permitted numbers by acreage and regulating enclosure locations. It raises no objection to the village taking lead agency status and finds the matter one for local determination in accordance with the village's own planning and zoning policies. The county's description of the law does not mention the rooster and pigeon prohibition at all. The Waterfront Advisory Committee reviewed the referral on July 8 and recommended a finding of consistency with the village's Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, having reviewed all 44 LWRP policies and found no changes needed to the environmental or coastal assessment forms. Its memo records the purpose of the changes as providing clarity and guidance to residents and to the Engineering Office for enforcement. The committee is chaired by Len Simon, who also sits on the Board of Trustees that will vote on the law; the memo is signed in his name as chairman. The version the committee reviewed was v. 1 — the one with the 2027 date and the wider species list. The village Planning Board reported on August 3, over Chairman Luntz's signature, that its members read the draft as clarifying existing law. Its one flagged problem is internal: as written, the setbacks would in certain districts allow an accessory dwelling unit but not a chicken coop, and in RA-5 the required setback would be hard to achieve at all. So the prohibition that is the most consequential thing in the law — and the only part of it that ends an activity now permitted — has passed through three reviews without any of them addressing it. If you want a say The hearing, if scheduled Wednesday, is on September 2 at 7 p.m. Written comment can go to the Board of Trustees at BoardofTrustees@crotononhudson-ny.gov, and the board takes public comment at its regular meetings on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. The levers still open at a hearing are the ones the two drafts differ on: whether there is a compliance date, whether existing keepers are grandfathered, and which species the line covers.
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