Keeping chickens in the backyard remains illegal for most Kitchener residents – but for the time being, doing so won’t result in a penalty.

“Any open files that we have, we’re going to suspend action for the time being,” Shayne Turner, the city’s director of enforcement, said Monday in an interview.

A ban on chicken coops – unless placed on land specifically zoned for agriculture – was made explicit in Kitchener’s animal control bylaw in the 1980s.

Turner says he isn’t aware of any changes made to the rules governing city chickens since that time.

The issue has recently received attention recently due to the case of Heidi Wall, who was threatened with a $5,000 fine if she didn’t remove her chickens from their home on Pine Street, in the city’s north end.

An online petition in support of Wall and her chickens has garnered nearly 1,000 signatures, more than half of which are said to come from Kitchener residents.

Wall says she and other advocates for urban chicken coops are hoping for a chance to speak to city councillors about the issue.

According to Turner, that pending conversation was the impetus behind the decision to suspend enforcement of the bylaw.

“If we are directed to review the issue, we’ll look at what other municipalities are doing as well as whatever other research there is out there,” he said.

Once councillors have made a decision, bylaw officers will again enforce the rules regarding chicken coops – whatever they may be.

Wall calls the decision a “temporary win,” saying the decision will allow more people to advocate for the legalization of backyard chickens.

“People who have chickens can now join in the conversation without feeling like they’ll be penalized,” she said.

No timeline has been determined for when the issue will be brought to council, a city spokesperson said in an email.

Wall has moved her chickens to what she describes as a “homestead” outside city limits.

“They’re quite happy, but I am really looking forward to them coming home at some point,” she said.

Kitchener’s bylaw department has received “four or five” complaints about urban chickens in the past few weeks, Turner said.

Before that, only three complaints had been made since the beginning of 2014.