It’s been over a year-and-a-half since Michael Lewis appeared before the Board of Supervisors and asked for a text amendment to the county’s zoning ordinance so he could continue to keep honeybee hives on his residential-zoned property in Daleville.

Instead of considering a text amendment dealing with just honeybees, the supervisors directed the planning and zoning staff to do a thorough review of the county’s agriculture-related zoning laws and make recommendations for any changes that might meet the evolving nature of home/residential agriculture uses.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Planning and Zoning Office gave it\s recommendation for those zoning changes to the supervisors, who were expected to set a public meeting in September to take comments on the proposed changes.

The proposed changes follow a public input session this spring.

If approved, the zoning changes will make it possible for property owners in some residential neighborhoods to keep honeybees, some poultry and rabbits under a new Home Agriculture section of the zoning ordinance.

However, there are restrictions.

The proposed Home Agriculture section specifically allows only honeybees, rabbits (6 over 6 months old/15 under 4 months old) and a combination of up to 12 poultry that includes only chickens (hens only), quail, pheasants, pigeons and doves. Roosters, guinea fowl, geese, peacocks and turkeys are prohibited in residential zone areas.

There are specific limitations for honeybees that include hive setbacks from property lines, fly-away barriers (forcing bees to fly upward), and limits hives to backyards and a minimum distance from streets.

Honeybees can only be kept on parcels larger than 12,000 square feet (just over a quarter-acre). Up to four hives can be located on a parcel that size. One more hive can be placed on parcels for each additional 2,000 square feet over that minimum lot size.

There are size and setback requirements for small sheds, pet house and pens for poultry and rabbits; and fencing is required to keep animals confined to the site.

The zoning ordinance changes also defines Home Agriculture as “The use of residential land to raise plants and animals useful to humans, including fruits and vegetables, honeybees, and domestic, small-lot animals, at a limited scale, when it occurs on the same parcel as the residence of the person primarily responsible for the plants and animals.”

Home Agriculture would be allowed in Rural Residential (RR), Residential R-1, Residential R-2 and Residential R-3 zoning districts by right if it meets the lot size and other requirements.