WILLIAMSTOWN, N.J. (CBS) -- Sunday was a big win for a family involved in a backyard chicken battle in South Jersey. For years they have been fighting to keep chicken on their property.

Now for Troy Sterling, raising chickens at his Williamstown home is possible after an ordinance was passed by Monroe Township to start a backyard chicken pilot program.

"I feel wonderful, it's about time, I mean there's a lot of people in Williamstown that have chickens and now they don't have to be on the down low with them," he said.

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Sterling is spending time on his friend's farm, in an agricultural zone where keeping chickens is already legal, until he's able to keep chickens on his own property.

He use to have nine, until a neighbor reported him and he had to get rid of them. That is when he banned together with other residents to get a new ordinance passed.

Six years later it is a success.

"Nothing but a smile, I can't wait," Sterling said.

The pilot program, which was passed last month, allows up to 25 Williamstown residents to apply for a license to keep up to six hens in their backyards.

Participants must obtain a license by completing an introductory course at the Pfieffer Community Center.

Each participant should have a chicken coop that will be inspected by an advisory board before they are given a license.

The ordinance also requires that the coop be at least 20 feet from the home and at least five feet from neighbors' properties.

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Patrick McDevitt is on the advisory board, he spoke with some residents along with township leaders' about their concerns with the chickens noise and foul smells from waste.

"Chickens are very quiet but roosters make noise and people sometimes confuse them so our ordinance is for hens only, no roosters," he said.

The backyard chicken pilot program is only a two-year program, which means it will be evaluated in 2021.

That's when it can become a permanent ordinance with the possibility of having more licenses.

If not, the 25 participants of the pilot program can still keep their chickens, because according to the ordinance, they will be grandfathered in.

CBS3's Chantee Lans reports.