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2009-11-21

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:00 PM

City hopes to cage chicken squawk

Request for chickens in Ottawa runs afoul of residents with ruffled feathers

By VICKIE MOSS, Herald Public Affairs Editor

Ottawa planning commissioner Richard Warren tried to keep chickens in the city limits.

It was a disaster.

“I love chickens, but the neighbors will get wind of it,” Warren warned fellow commissioners during a study session Wednesday as they discussed a citizen’s request to modify the city’s ordinance against chickens and other livestock.

Warren said he felt compelled to share his story of owning chickens when he lived in suburban Miami.

He tried to raise 50 chickens in his garage, only to discover the mating ritual for adolescent chickens can be quite violent.

So he tried to separate the males and females with help from a neighbor, but the chickens destroyed her flowers.

The next step was to get rid of the males.

And when spring and summer rains came, it didn’t take long before neighbors complained about the odor. City zoning officers forced him to get rid of the chickens. Warren appealed, arguing six of the chickens were pets. He even gave them names.

It didn’t work.

Because of that experience, Warren said he wasn’t likely to support the request from Rachel Steelman, who recently presented commissioners with research about other cities’ policies in an effort to modify the ordinance.

Most of the planners also said they were opposed to changing the ordinance.

But as the planning commission continued to discuss the issue, Warren said he might be willing to consider allowing a small number of chickens, like one or two. The city could regulate chickens in much the same way they regulate animals like dogs and cats, like restricting the number of animals, planners discussed with Wynndee Lee, director of planning and zoning for the city.

But chickens present unique problems, especially with neighbors, Lee said. The city has taken steps to create affordable housing, including reducing the size of yards and allowing more dense residential areas. Allowing chickens would be counterproductive, she said.

“I’m trying to reconcile that with other animals like dogs and cats,” Warren said.

Chickens are allowed under some circumstances, like if the property is three acres or larger, or if the owner had chickens before the regulations were changed in the mid-1990s.

Lee suggested commissioners continue to discuss the issue at future meetings. When the ordinance was changed in the 1990s, public hearings drew standing-room only crowds, she said.

“There’s four paragraphs there,” Lee said of the ordinance regulating livestock within the city limits.

“That’s not a lot, but it took a lot to get there.”