City Council Favors Chicken in a Pot, Not in a Coop

Chicken jokes ran rampant at Wednesday's , but the council cooped up the hopes of "urban agriculturalists" by denying further exploration on the topic of allowing more residential chickens in Santee.

The council also decided, after hearing the staff report, legalese from the City Attorney and public speakers in opposition and support, to continue the city's implicit ban on medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits.

First, the chickens:

proposed that the city staff come up with a report considering an amendment to Santee’s zoning ordinance to allow in more residential areas within the city, and other "urban agriculture" code issues, such as front yard gardens.

“Many citizens are keeping chickens these days because of the high cost at grocery stores and concerns about chemical additives and hormones,” Voepel wrote in a memo to the City Council. “Currently, chickens are not permitted in most residential zones, and I want to encourage in Santee by allowing our citizens to keep five or so chickens in a coop with the appropriate setbacks.”

One person entered speaker slips in opposition to chickens and five in favor. See video of speakers and Voepel's explanation in the media box.

Speakers against more chickens in residential areas of town cited noise, smell, cleanliness and real estate issues for why they shouldn't be allowed. Speakers in favor, which greatly outnumbered those against, included Ken Stuart, who read from a U.S. Department of Agriculture flier describing backyard chicken coops as patriotic. The flier may have been from the World War II era, but, "as far as I know, the suggestion hasn't been repealed," he said. This argument speaks to the issue as one about personal liberty and property rights.

Others in favor denied the noise issue, saying roosters make the noise and wouldn't be allowed, quoting figure such as "six chickens create as much waste as one dog," and insisting that the smell is not an issue if the coop is properly cleaned.

“Requiring a 50-foot setback will kill 70 to 80 percent of the homes in Santee because the houses are just too close together,” Voepel said during talks with a Santee Patch reporter. He further said that those eligible for coops would be required to have a garden as a means of offsetting chicken waste.

Voepel made motion to direct staff to look into urban agriculture, gardening, chicken coops, and the motion was voted against. A council vote of 2-2 results in a failure, with and voting no, and John Minto absent.

Councilman was interested in hearing more information from the city staff, though he had reservations about potential effects on real estate sales, an issue he's familiar with, as a Realtor.

, a local chicken enthusiast who openly and flagrantly admitted to keeping birds at his house, though he's not in a code compliant zone, said he was not surprised by the vote.

"It won't affect my chicken rearing," he said. "I thought for a bit that they'd vote to at least look into it."

He said there is a lot more work to do to legalize chickens in more areas of Santee, and he'll be back to talk to the council members, especially one-on-one with the two who voted against it.

"You shouldn't have to live in fear that your neighbor is going to rat you out for having chickens," he said.

In a separate follow-up, I'll detail more about the medical marijuana discussion at the meeting, which included information about a "Walmart of marijuana," as Voepel put it, a dispensary that is due to open shortly in an unincorporated area of county land near Gillespie Field, just across Santee city boundaries.