Not much clucking at Mon City meeting
MONONGAHELA – Residents of Monongahela met with another delay in the bureaucratic process associated with changing city rules to allow for the raising of backyard chickens in residential areas.
The city’s planning commission Tuesday continued a hearing on the matter because its members wanted legal advice before preparing recommendations to Monongahela Council on how to amend the zoning ordinance to redefine chickens as pets and set rules on how many of them will be allowed in coops.
“This is all new territory for them and council,” said assistant Monongahela code enforcer Tamie Gido, who served as recording secretary at the hearing in City Hall.
Chickens were brought to council after code enforcer Les Pemberton issued letters in January to two households instructing them to remove their chickens because they violated the ordinance that only permits them on farms within city limits. The issue was later referred to the commission after Mayor Bob Kepics did some research and learned chickens are permitted in cities and municipalities across the nation because sustainable living is trendy.
“We need the solicitor,” commission member Terry Sebben said after resident Chad DeSantis testified he interpreted the ordinance to mean it restricts the breeding of poultry.
“If there’s no rooster, there’s no breeding,” DeSantis testified. “I’m also pro chicken.”
Gido said the ordinance drafted in 2010 classified chickens as livestock and their owners “must have an agricultural operation.”
Four people attended the 4:30 p.m. hearing to support backyard chickens, and no one offered testimony opposing the amending of the ordinance.
Zack Bozic of Monongahela testified about his concerns about how big of a property lot a house must have in order to raise chickens.
“I have chickens myself,” Bozic said, adding he’s had no complaints from his neighbors about his chicken coop.
The commission is researching other municipal ordinances and considering limiting chickens to five per household. Its members did not set a date Tuesday for when the hearing will resume.