Backyard Farm Animals Up for Council Vote

Tomorrow night, Monday, could be the night that the City Council finally decides one of the most debated issues in the city in recent times — a significantly relaxed animals ordinance making it much easier for residents to keep chickens and bees and somewhat easier to have goats and pigs.

More than two years in the making

The proposed revision of the current strict city law on keeping farm animals has been under study by the city since May 2009, when some residents asked the Environmental Quality Commitee to foster the renewed interest in keeping such animals as part of the sustainability and local food movements, according to the staff report for tomorrow's council meeting. (The report, which describes the proposed new law, is attached as a PDF file.)

Proposed revisions were aired at several well-attended public meetings that featured spirited and often impassioned debate, most recently at the March 21 City Council meeting. At that meeting, the council indicated its support for relaxed requirements and asked staff to come back with a revised version of the draft ordinance.

Current law

Under current law, residents who want to keep farm animals — including 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 that were in effect in March.

The version of the law being proposed by staff at tomorrow's council meeting at 7:30 p.m. would allow possession of limited numbers of such animals, depending on the size of the property. In some cases, the limit on the number of animals and their proximity to the property line could be relaxed with unanimous written consent of adjoining neighbors.

Here are details for each animal and some of the major changes in the prosposal since it was last aired on March 21:

Chickens

The March 21 plan said up to four hens could be kept on single-family lots of at least 4,000 square feet with an over-the-counter permit likely to cost less than $100. An additional provision added since March 21 would permit five or six hens on such lots with the unanimous consent of adjacent homeowners.

The earlier proposal said keeping chickens on lots smaller than 4,000 square feet would still require a costly, discretionay conditional use permit from the planning commission. The new version says up to four hens could be kept on such lots with permission of all adjacent property owners.

The new proposal also would allow chicken coops to be located closer than 20 feet to dwellings on adjacent properties with unanimous consent of directly adjacent neighbors.

Roosters would continue to need a conditional use permit, as they do now.

Honeybees

The March 21 proposal said up to two hives could be kept on lots of at least 5,000 square feet with a simple over-the-counter permit, provided they remain in the backyard at least five feet from the property line and 20 feet from neighboring homes. Under the revised plan, unanimous consent by adjacent neighbors would allow up to three hives on lots of at least 5,000 square feet and one hive on smaller lots, with no restriction on the distance to the property line or adjacent homes.

Goats

The March proposal would have allowed goats on lots of at least 10,000 square feet with an "administrative use permit," which is easier to get than a conditional use permit but harder than an over-the-counter permit. An admininistrative use permit, like a conditional use permit, is not a matter of right. It is granted at the discretion of the zoning administrator with assorted fees totaling $1,171 in March. The new proposal adds an allowance for keeping "up to one goat" on lots of at least 7,500 square feet for two months a year for "weed abatement."

Pigs

With an administrative use permit, one pot-bellied pig (under 150 pounds) could be kept in an enclosed area on a lot of at least 5,000 square feet, with the enclosure at least 20 feet from neighboring homes and five feet from the property line.

Homes next to multi-family properties

A provision in the March 21 proposal would have required single-family homes that are next to multi-family properties to continue to need a conditional use permit to keep any farm animals, but the proposal now before council eliminated that restriction.

Slaughter of animals

At the March meeting, council members expressed interest in adding a ban on the home slaughter of animals to the new animals ordinance, but the city attorney "expressed legal concerns" about a ban, indicating it would be difficult to craft, according to the new staff report. Such a ban could not interfere with religious expression by banning religious conduct that includes animal sacrifice, the staff report says. Nor would it want to prevent residents from buying, say, live lobsters at the market for cooking at home. 

Instead, the city attorney recommends that the council adopt regulations on health, sanitation and nuisances that would "address the potential impacts of animal slaughter without creating potential constitutional issues or inadvertently banning commonplace activties," the staff report says.