City staff will look at the ramifications of allowing residents to have more chickens on their properties.
At the April 16 City of Powell River council meeting, councillor George Doubt said he would like to bring a motion that council request staff bring back a report on the action item council had discussed on amendments to the animal control bylaw to allow for an increase in the number of chickens people can have on their property.
Doubt said this item had been on council’s agenda for some time. He said at one point last year a number of people came as delegations to request the ability to have an increased number of chickens. He added that other people came as delegations that had some concerns.
He said that earlier this year, council approved an electric fence modification to the city’s bylaws to allow homeowners to protect wildlife or chickens in their yards.
“With COVID-19 and renewed interest in local food, it might be worth examining whether or not there could be some amendments to our animal control bylaw to allow more chickens,” said Doubt. “I hope we get support for this and staff can have a look at it and bring back any concerns they have. Perhaps we can write something that will address this.”
Councillor Maggie Hathaway asked how many chickens are currently allowed, and what number was Doubt thinking of in revising the bylaw.
Doubt said it depends on the size of the lot. He said he lives on a large lot in Wildwood and thinks the limit there, because it’s agricultural, is 24 chickens to the acre. For other lots within the city, he believes it is three, he added.
“I don’t know all the details right now,” said Doubt. “I’d like to see a recommendation come from staff about what they think is appropriate. There may also be some recommendations of placement of where a chicken coop might be in relationship to neighbours.”
Councillor Rob Southcott said there has been discussion in council, and in the community with regard to chickens.
“Our addition of electric fences to the zoning bylaw have addressed a lot of the concerns and made a lot of people happy,” said Southcott. “It was an excellent amendment. It comes down to something very simple and that is in some places in our city, a few chickens may be too many, and in other places, more may be fine.”
Southcott said he would be in support of looking at the matter, especially with there being some question about the security of the local food system. He said council could address that so people in the community can look after their food more and the needs of the community.
Councillor Jim Palm said concerns raised a couple of years ago included the location of where the chicken coops were placed on properties, so neighbours can still enjoy the outdoors without smelling what’s coming from next door. Another concern was for the size of the lots coops were being built upon and whether neighbours could be protected from the odours.
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she was in favour of looking at whether there should be more chickens allowed. She said she didn’t think some smaller lots should have more chickens, and proximity to neighbours is extremely important.
She said some larger lots in the city that are not zoned agricultural could stand to have more chickens on them.
Mayor Dave Formosa said he remembers some residents coming before council and talking about how neighbouring coops were right under their kitchen windows, and how offensive it was. He said there were also complaints about rats.
“I was asked the other day by another complainant who has an acre lot in the city and their neighbour’s chicken coop was in a place that it didn’t need to be, close to the home, and made those people upset,” said Formosa. “I agree with what folks are saying about the location of coops, and the size of the lots. It would be nice to revisit this and really protect the integrity of the neighbours.”
Formosa said the initiative to allow more chickens could put greater demands on the time of bylaw control officers. He said he thinks council talked about some kind of small fee because bylaw officers would need to attend the properties in question.
He added that he didn’t think allowing more chickens was a bad idea, and his father had chickens and rabbits on a good-sized lot.
“Our problem was the dogs in the neighbourhood killed them all,” said Formosa. “It would have been nice if we had an electric fence back then.”
