I had hoped to vote "Yes" on a Backyard Hens ordinance last Monday night; especially since it's in my campaign platform that I support the concept. I do believe Cedar Falls should join other cities and permit backyard hens to some degree. Some of the cities in Iowa which already allow them are Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Iowa City, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Marion, Dubuque, Lake Park, Waverly, Ottumwa, and Clinton. Unfortunately, I couldn't support the measure that was up for a vote on Monday night, and I wanted to take a moment and explain why.
When Councilor Miller (Ward 1) brought up Backyard Chickens again for discussion in August, I was enthusiastic about voting on the proposed 2016 ordinance again; I believed that the 2016 ordinance provided the appropriate level of oversight the raising of livestock in a residential area. But I was surprised this weekend to read over the 2018 draft ordinance, and to discover that we'd be voting on an ordinance that bore little resemblance to what was forwarded to City Council for approval in 2016.
Here are the key differences:
- LICENSING. Chickens would be treated as pets (like dogs or cats) through a licensing process. And that license would have to be applied for every year. How many of you license your cats or dogs with the city? I'll admit, we didn't license for ten years until a panicked Rolo the Cat sunk his fangs into wife's ankle when she stepped on his tail -- urgent care was required to report the animal bite to the sheriff's office and needed a pet license number. Is it reasonable to expect, five years from now, that chicken owners would keep up on their annual license? How could we realistically enforce it?
- NO LAND USE PERMIT REQUIREMENT. I see backyard coops as miniature farms. Raising backyard chickens, in my mind, changes the use of that bit of land, and I believe that requires more oversight than just having a doghouse in your backyard. If a flock of chickens must be destroyed due to a CDC alert or other mandate, it's important to know where these flocks are being kept, and I believe a land use permit would have enabled that better than a non-location-specific license.
- THE INCLUSION OF DUCKS. Had we been able to make headway to restore the vote to the provisions of the 2016 ordinance, I would have motioned to amend the draft ordinance to remove ducks. While the backyard chicken movement is well-established, backyard ducks are less so. I simply don't have enough confidence from the available academic research and to say whether or not ducks are compatible with residential areas. "Backyard Chickens" make sense to me, "Backyard Ducks" doesn't. I wanted to remove ducks in order to allow us to work through any issues with chickens first, and then potentially add ducks in some future year, if it made sense to. Also, when I campaigned, I gave my support to backyard chickens, not ducks, so I didn't feel like I was breaking any campaign promises there (and yes, living up to my word is very important to me!).
- CHICKENS AS PETS, RATHER THAN LIVESTOCK. Underlying my "no" vote was my strong sense from the discussion at City Council that chickens were pets. I felt (whether incorrectly or incorrectly) that the City Council members who were in favor of Monday night's ordinance thought that chickens were equivalent to cats or dogs. I disagree and believed that approving an ordinance which basically treated chickens a "just another pet" would be a disservice to the community.
Before the council meeting, I expressed my reservations with two of the likely "yes" voters and explained that if we didn't send the proposed ordinance back to committee (the only way to replace it with the 2016 ordinance), then I wouldn't be able to vote on the proposal as is...it would die that night. So the unwillingness of council to move it back to committee for a "swap out" with the 2016 language sealed its fate this time around. Disappointing.
I hope that at some future date (perhaps 2020?), we'll be able to revisit this and approve the 2016 version of the ordinance, avoiding additional staff time on this issue. I believe that version of the ordinance gives Backyard Hens in the best chance of success in Cedar Falls.