Sitting on it: Council waiting for more input on city chicken amendment
Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Fayetteville City Council had a very fowl conversation Tuesday night.
Aldermen took about 45 minutes worth of public comments on a proposed amendment to the city’s Unified Development Code that would allow residents within the city limits to house chickens.
The council further amended the amendment and let it stand after its first reading after several citizens weighed in on the issue.
Ward 1 Alderman Brenda Thiel sponsored the amendment that has been discussed by the council in meetings and committees for the past three months. She said the idea was brought up when a citizen, Mandy Cox, contacted Thiel and asked why the city did not allow chickens with in its limits.
City staff worked with the Animal Services Division to come up with a plan that would allow chickens in residential areas in such a way that is humane for chickens and sanitary for neighbors.
“I don’t think we need to pass this tonight. I would like to make a couple of amendments tonight from what has been suggested,” Thiel told the council.
Jeremy Pate, director of current planning, said that a lot of cities are moving toward similar amendments or ordinances. Places like Madison, Wis., Seattle, Little Rock and even Rogers have all amended their codes or passed ordinances allowing chickens within city limits.
Pate said that citizens who currently own chickens and are in an area zoned residential agriculture would be unaffected by the change.
The original wording allowed residents to house up to four hens, but no roosters. The hens were to be kept in a structure raised two feet off the ground when the owner is not present, and when the owner is present all hens must be kept in a covered enclosure 40 feet from any residential structure.
The council amended the ordinance eliminating the raised coup requirement, lowering the distance from residential structures to 25 feet and requiring that the coup size allows a minimum of four square feet per chicken.
The issue didn’t see any real opposition, just suggestions from concerned citizens.
“I think this proposal is a small step in the right direction, I think it should go further. I think people have a very good reason right now to raise their own food,” Joe Alexander told the council. He suggested the council look into allowing residents to house rabbits as well as roosters.
“Allow roosters. In Fayetteville we have the noise of barking dogs, helicopters, motorcycles and sirens, all of I which I prefer the sound of a rooster over. It’s more pleasant,” he said.
Kelly Rouok, a woman who grew up in Fayetteville and helped Madison, Wis., pass its chicken ordinance, spoke to the council about some common myths regarding chickens. She said chickens are fairly clean creatures that keep themselves clean via dirt baths. The stench people usually associate with chickens is actually a result of commercial operations grouping hundreds of the animals together, not three or four hens in a backyard.
“Hens are not loud; roosters are loud. Hens can’t make a noise that’s anything as loud as a cluck. They coo or cluck just before they lay their eggs in the morning,” Rouok said.
One issue that the council left unresolved was whether it would require chicken owners in the city limits to register their premises with the city or a state or national organization.
Brandon Doss, a representative for the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission, asked that aldermen seriously consider changing the amendment and requiring some sort of registration so the commission could easily locate the birds should some bird-related sickness break out in the area.
“We had an outbreak earlier this year in south Washington County of low pathogen avian influenza. While we have no opinion on this ordinance overall, please include a requirement for individuals who are going to house these birds to register their premises,” Doss said. “That way, in the event of a disease outbreak, we could find the animals quickly.”
The council will re-examine the issue in two weeks.
“I’m not sure I have enough chicken information,” Ward 2 Alderman Nancy Allen said. “The chickens that I had as a child in Fayetteville just ran loose in the backyard.”
In other business, the council decided to table the 50-50 sewer infrastructure cost share with SouthPass developers.
Ward 2 Alderman Kyle Cook suggested the council do so at the request of Ward 3 Alderman Bobby Ferrell, who was absent from the council meeting.
Ferrell was at Thursday’s Water and Sewer Committee meeting, where the committee voted to pass the issue and forward it to the council. Ferrell voted against the cost share on the committee level and requested to be part of the discussion of the cost share at the council level.
Ward 4 Alderman Shirley Lucas was also absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
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