Politics & Government

Council Signals Support for Backyard Chickens, Other Animals

The El Cerrito City Council Monday night indicated support for a proposed city ordinance making it easier and cheaper for single-family homeowners to have a limited number of chickens, bees and goats on large lots, and one pig.

At a City Council study session Monday night on backyard chickens, bees, goats and pigs, council members indicated support for substantially easing the current strict regulations on keeping such animals.

The discussion during a regular council meeting attracted an unusually large audience of about 60 people, several of whom expressed passionate opinions on one side or the other.

The session was intended for city staff to receive feedback from the council and public before drafting a proposed ordinance to bring back to the council. No action was taken Monday night.

Find out what's happening in El Cerritowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

More than a dozen speakers addressed the council, the latest public input during nearly two years of community debate over the topic since it was brought by some residents to the Environmental Quality Committee in May 2009.

The committee's chairman, Ron Egherman, was the first member of the public to speak, telling the council: "The main thing the EQC (Environmental Quality Committee) wants to convey is our strong feeling that keeping these animals is a way to support sustainable food sources and to remind us where our food comes from. It's also a way of getting neighbors together and fostering a sense of community."

Find out what's happening in El Cerritowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The next speaker's remarks reflected the public opinion divide. Ron Codron told the council that the tranquility he had enjoyed in his El Cerrito home and in a memorial garden dedicated to his late wife has been ruined by the noise of chickens acquired by his neighbors. Codron, who heads Abbey Carpet in El Cerrito, said he would consider moving from the home, which he built with his wife in 1979, if the problem continues.

One speaker argued that property values would decline for homes next to those where animals were kept, while another speculated that they could rise, based on the agreeable animal keepers he met while touring backyard chicken owners in Alameda.

Former planning commissioner Kathleen McKinley objected to a provision that would  exclude residents who live next to multi-unit dwellings from the relaxed animal-keeping regulations. McKinley said a duplex could be occupied by only two people while a single-family home could hold a family of five or six, thus making the exclusion unfair.

McKinley, a lawyer, said she would likely mount a legal challenge if that provision passed. As result, three of the five council members later said they would like to see the provision changed.

Councilman Greg Lyman said the city is seeking to balance private property rights with community rights. "This is not a simple question," he said. "We have received over 50 comments in the last couple of days."

Much of the council discussion, and many of the public comments, focused not on whether to revise the current law but how to do so.

Under current law, residents who want to keep chickens, bees, goats or pigs, have to seek a conditional use permit issued at the discretion of the Planning Commission, an expensive and time-consuming process involving a public hearing, possible appeals and at least $1,355 in assorted fees.

In a tenative version of the new law described in a city staff report to the council, residents could keep up to four hens but no roosters in an enclosure without a conditional use permit, if the property is a single-family home on a lot larger than 4,000 square feet. (About 84 percent of El Cerrito lots would be eligible.) Coops would have to be 20 feet away from houses on adjacent property. Permission would be granted by an over-the-counter permit that doesn't require a hearing and would cost in the range of $50 to $100, city senior planner Sean Moss told the council.

Up to two beehives could be kept on lots bigger than 5,000 square feet if kept in backyards at least 20 feet from adjacent homes and five feet from property lines. They too would require only an over-the-counter permit.

Goats could be kept without a conditional use permit on lots larger than 10,000 square feet, but they would require an administrative use permit, issued at the discretion of the Zoning Administrator and costing $1,171 in various fees.

One pig under 150 pounds, which means in effect a pot-bellied pig, could be kept without a conditional use permit in an enclosure at least 20 feet from adjacent homes and five feet from property lines.

Much discussion centered on what do to about animals that create a nuisance. The proposal presented by staff Tuesday night said, "Animals may not disturb neighbors with their noise between sunset and one-half hour after sunrise."

Particularly nettlesome for councilmembers were the issues of how to define "disturb" and whether the time-frame of sunset to half an hour after sunrise would be appropriate.

At the end of the discussion, City Manager Scott Hanin said the city staff would make revisions based on the direction that the council provided. These included greater flexibility in fee levels, addressing enforcement issues, seeking ways to motivate animal keepers to work with neighbors, considering adding other animals to the list, forbidding the slaughter of animals and removal of the exclusion based on living next door to mult-unit dwellings.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here