President Herbert Hoover may have supported a “chicken in every pot”; however, the Kenai City Council continues to struggle with chickens in the back yard.
Kenai City Council members Alex Douthit and Teea Winger introduced an ordinance that is not new: the chicken ordinance. The ordinance would allow up to twelve hens to be kept on certain Kenai lots under 40,000 square feet.
Similar ordinances have been presented to the Kenai City Council in past years; once in 2013 and again in 2015. A chicken ordinanace failed in both attempts and has again failed to advance, as written, through the Council.
At Wednesday night’s Kenai Council meeting, the Council debated Ordinance No. 3332-2023 , and decided that further action on this ordinance will take place on the March 1st Kenai City Council meeting.
Sponsor of the ordinance, council member Douthit spoke to the positives of this ordinance before there was further discussion by the council.
“I think it’s an important ordinance for food security just for Alaska in general it’s going to be a benefit for the community. I think there’s a lot of positivity throughout the community for this and a lot of people watching it to see how it comes about. There’s a lot of different things have come about during this; I’ve done my research quite a bit had a lot of different talks and conversations I don’t feel that the 12 chickens is exorbitant I think they’re more than ample to be able to fit on 1/4 acre lot based on the research I’ve done.
The chickens would be contained, that would be required as far as animal nuisance laws and regulations, those are already in effect. There’s a lot of people in the city that already have chickens and if you had looked at the during the planning zoning staff spoke to very few of any complaints and last several years.”
Vice President James Baisden was the first to oppose the ordinance.
“I’m still going to be a no vote on it as it sits right now unless we take the recommendation and go back to the Planning and Zoning Committee. We have more work to do, I think we can do it right we can make some changes. They (public) need to be part of the process and they’ve asked to be part of the process.”
Council Member Deborah Sounart said she wanted to support this ordinance, however there are aspects of the ordinance that are giving her pause.
“I would very much like to support this going forward. I think it’s important that families can provide eggs as part of their food source for their families. I do see the necessity of it and I want to support this. The way it’s written now is too broad there’s too many questions. The research I’ve read for 12 chickens would oversupply most families and I would hate to see any commercial side business come out of this from having 12 chickens for a family of three or a family of four. There needs to be some more work done on this; let’s hash out some details and put some sideboards on this and have something to move forward that all of us can live with.”
Council member Victoria Askins owns 12 chickens on her 40,000 square foot lot currently. She says that she has been raising chickens all her life and is in favor of having a chicken ordinance, but it is not this one. Askins supports the ordinance going back to the Planning and Zoning Committee and addressing the issues.
“I’ve raised chickens all my life and I have a 40,000 square foot lot and I have 12 chickens now. I’m in favor of us having a chicken ordinance of some sort but I’m not in favor of this one. I too agree that it’s too broad. We need to limit it for the size of the lots; we need to establish some parameters for structures. We say we want a semi-permanent structure or permanent structure and some people may consider that pallets with a tarp on top. I am very much in favor of this going back to Planning and Zoning and us addressing the issues that have been brought forth by our citizens, coming up with a compromise.”
After much discussion, it was determined to send the ordinance back to the Planning and Zoning Commission to have a work session and make recommendations in time for the Council to consider further action at the March 1st Kenai City Council meeting.