Council advances ordinance to let residents keep chickens in Cape

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correctly identify Molly Hood as deputy city manager.

The Cape Girardeau City Council voted 5-1 on Monday to allow chickens to be kept on any property in the city limits, despite opposition from some residents of the Red Star neighborhood.

Ward 6 Councilman Wayne Bowen cast the lone dissenting vote.

Mayor Harry Rediger was out of town.

The vote comes more than six years after the former city council voted 4-3 to retain the city’s ban on keeping chickens.

Council members acted in response to a petition presented by resident Andrew Bard to overturn the ban.

Bard raised the issue in November after the city cited him for keeping chickens, forcing him to relocate the fowl to a friend’s farm in Oak Ridge.

Supporters and opponents crowded into the council chambers to watch the vote.

Under the measure, which received first-round approval, anyone would be allowed to keep up to six hens in their backyard as long as they are not for commercial purposes or slaughter.

Those who keep chickens may slaughter them indoors for personal consumption, according to the ordinance.

Hens must be kept in an enclosure or fenced area at all times.

At night, they must be secured within a chicken coop or henhouse, according to the ordinance.

The measure requires all enclosures to be kept in a clean, dry and sanitary condition.

All enclosures must be at least 10 feet from the property line and at least 25 feet from any adjacent residential dwelling, church, school or place of business, the ordinance states.

Deputy city manager Molly Hood wrote in a council agenda letter “any violation of the proposed ordinance which constitutes a health hazard or interferes with the use or enjoyment of a neighboring property shall be deemed a nuisance and addressed through the city’s nuisance abatement procedures.”

Bowen said he voted against the measure because of concerns about the potential risk of avian flu and other diseases that could be spread by chickens.

He suggested allowing chickens to be kept in the city limits could open the door to allowing all types of livestock to be raised in the city.

Bowen said constituents who contacted him were opposed to the measure by a margin of 3-to-1.

But other council members said the majority of responses from constituents in their neighborhood favored allowing chickens to be kept.

Ward 2 Councilwoman Shelly Moore said, “I think it is a wonderful idea. A lot of kids don’t know about farming.”

Dan Presson of the Red Star Neighborhood Revival organization told the council members of his community group oppose allowing chickens to be raised in the city.

“We believe that allowing chickens in our neighborhood would be an additional nuisance,” he said.

“We live with struggling property values every day,” he told the council.

But Ward 1 Councilman Joe Uzoaru, whose district includes the Red Star neighborhood, said he had surveyed hundreds of constituents. Most favored the new ordinance, he said.

Uzoaru said those people who create nuisances would do so whether it involved chickens or motor vehicles.

“I don’t feel telling people what they can’t do really solves the problem,” he said.

After the meeting, Bard said he looked forward to raising chickens again.

The council is scheduled to vote on the second and third readings of the measure Feb. 6.

If approved, the measure would take effect later that month.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.