Planning commission recommends chicken-keeping ordinance changes to City Council

City staff presented proposed text amendments to the animal-keeping ordinance aimed at making chicken-keeping rules easier to comply with and consistent with peer cities. Julia, a city staff member, said staff reviewed complaints and League of Minnesota Cities guidance and recommended reducing the required distance of a chicken coop or run from property lines from 15 feet to 5 feet, clarifying that the rules apply to residential properties, and adding a limited exception permitting on-site slaughter "for cultural purposes." "City staff has prepared an animal ordinance text amendment about chicken keeping," Julia said during her presentation.

Commissioners asked several clarifying questions. One asked why the coop height was set at 15 feet; staff and other commissioners said that height appears tied to the city's accessory-structure maximum and may not need changing. A separate discussion focused on how the code counts properties for the one-coop-per-property rule—staff explained that the city uses the property identification number, so multiple adjacent lots under one PID would be treated as a single property. Several commissioners voiced concern about enforcement and the cultural-slaughter exception; one commissioner favored returning to the original prohibition on roosters, noting a past neighborhood disturbance: "Roosters are prohibited," a commissioner said.

After a brief public hearing (no speakers present), the commission moved and seconded a recommendation to forward the ordinance to the City Council with the agreed change to the rooster language and with the understanding that staff would refine enforcement-related wording. The motion passed by voice vote with all in favor and no nays recorded. The commission will forward the proposed text amendment to the Council for final action.