Councilman get in the weeds chasing Kewanee chicken ordinance details
The City Council learned Monday that allowing Kewaneeans to raise chickens at their homes won’t be a simple matter.
In a discussion that covered an hour and a half and touched on such topics as the definition of a back yard and how high chickens can fly, the council went through a proposed ordinance on chicken-keeping.
A number of Kewaneeans — several of whom attended Monday’s meeting — had approached the council earlier this summer asking that residents be allowed to keep a small number of chickens on their residential property. That practice is now prohibited by a city ordinance.
City Manager Gary Bradley prepared a sample ordinance covering chicken-keeping, and Monday the council went through that ordinance and expressed their ideas.
Key points of the discussion:
The council’s consensus was that there should be a “pilot program” in which a limited number of residents are permitted to raise chickens. The program would be monitored by city officials for at least a year, and any problems that arise could be addressed.
There should be a fee for permits to raise chickens, but there was disagreement on how high the fee should be.
Mayor Gary Moore, who hasn’t been an enthusiastic supporter of allowing chickens in the city, said he thinks the fee should be at least $100 a year. “This is going to require a lot of work for city employees” who would have to inspect chicken coops regularly, and handle any violations. The people raising chickens should share in the cost, the mayor said.
Other council members agreed, but suggested that a lower fee might be appropriate.
There will be regulations in the final ordinance on the size of chicken coops and chicken runs, and how far they must be set back from property lines.
An issue with the chicken runs was the fencing that will be required around them. Council members said the fences shouldn’t be any higher than the six feet allowed by city ordinances for fences on residential property.
But Moore said he’s read that chickens can fly as high as 10 feet, so a six-foot fence would do no good.
Council members agreed that there should be penalties for owners whose chickens escape and must be chased down by city employees. But City Attorney Justin Raver said that since chickens are cheap, the owners might just deny that a captured bird belongs to them, to avoid paying a fine.
Council members agreed that coming up with an ordinance that’s acceptable to chicken keepers and at the same time lessens the burden on city staff won’t be easy.
“No matter how we go on this ordinance, we’re going to be the bad guys,” Councilman Steve Faber said.
And when the lengthy discussion had ended, the mayor said, “We definitely made this harder than it needs to be.”
This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Councilman get in the weeds chasing Kewanee chicken ordinance details
