Kewanee Council clucks at residents' chicken-raising request
Kewaneeans won’t be able to raise chickens in their back yards, at least not legally.
The City Council Monday voted down a proposed ordinance that would have allowed and regulated chicken-raising in residential parts of the city.
Only councilmen Tyrone Baker and Mike Komnick voted to approve the ordinance. Voting no were Mayor Gary Moore and Councilmen Chris Colomer and Steve Faber.
This summer, a group of Kewaneeans attended a council meeting to ask that chicken-raising be allowed in the city. The practice is now banned by a city ordinance.
The group’s members extolled the benefits of fresh eggs raised in the back yard and said if properly cared for, chickens aren’t a nuisance for the neighbors.
After a couple of council meetings at which the issue was discussed at length, City Manager Gary Bradley prepared an ordinance that would have allowed chicken-raising.
The ordinance said anyone raising chickens (hens only; no roosters would be allowed) had to have a city license, which would cost $100 a year. No more than six chickens could be kept, and only in neighborhoods zoned for single-family residential. Anyone raising chickens would have had to allow city staff to inspect their operation.
Mayor Moore, who had expressed opposition to allowing chickens during the earlier discussions, said when the issue was first raised he received many comments from residents. A large majority of the comments were negative, he said.
While he received more pro-chicken comments later on, Moore said, there remained more negative than positive comments.
Colomer and Faber said the same thing: They received many citizen comments about chicken-keeping and most were opposed to the practice.
“This is one of those no-win situations,” Moore said of the vote on the chicken ordinance. No matter which way the council voted, he said, many local residents would be upset.
This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Kewanee Council clucks at residents' chicken-raising request
