Powell chicken ordinance going back to council

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Powell City Council again will take up the subject of Maggie Carter’s chickens at its April 4 meeting.

This is a result of action taken by Powell’s planning and zoning commission in a public hearing on March 8. It unanimously approved revisions to an ordinance that could allow backyard chickens, if given the OK by city council.

“We understand the council’s position,” Stephen Carter, Maggie’s father, said Friday. “Maggie and I are only asking for city to allow each Home Owner’s Association to get together and let them decide.”

Carter, 11, has worked with Powell officials since October to have an ordinance changed that would allow residents within the city limits to raise backyard chickens.

She went before the commission at that time with a single question: “I want to ask if I can have chickens in my backyard. So I can learn to raise them.”

Since that time she has gone to city council twice and appeared before the commission a second time for the revisions.

When city councilmen had questions of health and safety Carter did research to counter their questions.

City council, in a 4 to 2 vote, Dec. 6 remanded the ordinance back to the commission with a list of suggested revisions.

From the commission’s draft notes of its March 8 meeting, the following changes were made to the original ordinance:

• The ordinance specifies the use is now a conditional use within the residential districts. Requests would go before the board of zoning appeals for approval with a one-time charge of $400.

• The coop is to be inspected within 30 days of approval of being granted or 30 days after a coop is installed.

• Coops will be defined as accessory structures.

• There is a maximum dimension or size to the coops.

• The maximum number of chickens was reduced from 9 to 6.

According to the commission’s draft notes, no one came forward for public comment in favor or against the ordinance.

By D. Anthony Botkin

[email protected]

D. Anthony Botkin may be reached at 740-413-0902 or on Twitter @dabotkin.

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