Commission Says No Chickens for Lake Alfred
By GREG PARLIER / LEDGER MEDIA GROUP
Posted Jun 18, 2013 at 11:04 PM
LAKE ALFRED | Chickens are not welcome in Lake Alfred after city commissioners Monday night denied a change to the city code that would have allowed the birds in city neighborhoods.
The Planning Board passed the ordinance at its March meeting by a 5-1 vote after months of debate, but the commission disagreed.
Several residents spoke against the ordinance at Monday’s meeting, which would have changed city code to allow up to six chickens — but no roosters — per home.
“I really think it’s a ridiculous idea,” resident Dorothy Cameron said. “I think you ought to bring lions and tigers and bears in and we can open an amusement park. We don’t need rats, and we don’t need chickens.“
Another letter to the commission expressed concern that chickens would bring in more rats and other rodents, and City Commissioner Albertus Maultsby said he didn’t want chickens to get out and run wild in town, creating the kind of problem that they had in Bartow years ago, he said.
This debate began when some residents approached city staff about changing the code so they could have egg-laying chickens in their backyards.
“More and more people want better food,” said resident Ray Duchesneau, who asked the Planning Board to amend the code about a year ago.
“They want to know that their food has less chemicals. Clearly you’ll know if you raise them yourselves,” he said.
The proposed code required the hen house or enclosure to be at least 10 feet from the property line and 25 feet from any adjacent building, but Mayor Nancy Daley questioned whether that would be enough, saying that other cities that allowed chickens had stricter requirements.
Commissioners did agree with the Planning Board to take bees off the city’s list of prohibited creatures in residential areas.
The ordinance also would have removed limits on the number of dogs residents can keep at home, changing it from the two-dog limit currently in place.
The city would have gone by the Polk County Animal Control ordinance that defines when multiple animals create a nuisance, instead of limiting the number of animals someone could have.
Resident Leon Juday said he thought that would create unnecessary hostility between neighbors.
The commission asked staff to revisit the dog section of the ordinance.
Chickens Have Backers, But Not on Lake Alfred City Commission
By GREG PARLIER / LEDGER MEDIA GROUP
Posted Jun 23, 2013 at 10:46 PM
LAKE ALFRED | The City Commission made it clear that it doesn’t want chickens in Lake Alfred in a unanimous vote last week. But some residents think the birds should be allowed.
Resident Bonnie Sprague wrote a letter to the commission after the meeting, saying it took the subject too lightly.
“I am one of the citizens that requested the city consider backyard chickens,” she wrote. “I attended several planning board meetings and watched the group work hard to come up with a viable, reasonable plan to allow chickens in a residential area. You laughed at their efforts.“
Commissioner Charles Lake said the issue wasn’t a joke, although he did wonder why they were spending so much time on chickens.
“We weren’t doing anything malicious. If it seemed like we were joking, we weren’t. We were taking it seriously,” he said.
Supporters say they want to keep chickens for their fresh eggs, and to avoid the hormones and genetically modified corn sometimes fed to poultry, Sprague said.
“More and more people want better food. They want to know that their food has less chemicals. Clearly you’ll know if you raise them yourselves,” said Sprague’s husband, Ray Duchesneau.
Daniel and Maranda Thompson, who moved to Lake Alfred in November 2012 from a town that allowed backyard chickens, also are disappointed the ordinance didn’t pass.
“We enjoyed having the fresh eggs every day and delighted in watching the chickens,” Maranda said. “We had hoped to use the chickens also as a teaching tool for our children. We wanted to teach them the responsibility of caring for the chickens.“
Mayor Nancy Daley, Commissioner Albertus Maultsby and Lake were outspoken at the meeting against chickens, saying they could attract vermin and don’t have a place in a modern city.
“In the 1930s and ’40s, it was necessary that someone had chickens,” Maultsby said. “There was no refrigeration and the pay was like 15 cents an hour and it was necessary to have chickens. But now, I don’t believe that people have to have a chicken to get their eggs. People make the big dollar now, and they can go down to the market and get all their eggs.“
Sprague argued in her letter that was just the point.
“To drive to the store for organic eggs, to purchase at an inflated price an item I can raise at a fraction of the cost is not only a poor use of my limited resources, it is environmentally irresponsible,” she wrote.
The Planning Board passed the ordinance, which would have allowed residents to have up to six chickens at their homes — but no roosters — in March by a 5-1 vote after months of discussion.
It finally made it to the commission last week after getting bumped from longer agendas for the past couple of months, said City Manager Ryan Leavengood.
Commissioner John Duncan said about eight people approached him about allowing chickens in Lake Alfred, but none of them spoke at the commission meeting, instead leaving the floor for those who opposed the ordinance when Daley invited the public to speak.
“I really think it’s a ridiculous idea. I think you ought to bring lions and tigers and bears and we can open an amusement park,” said resident Dorothy Cameron. “We don’t need rats and we don’t need chickens.“
Daley read a letter written to the commission by resident Gloria Dempsey, who expressed concern that bringing chickens to the city would invite an influx of rats as well. Cameron agreed.
“I am angry. I have enough trouble with the squirrels, ants (and) mice. I don’t look forward to having to look for the rats. I already had to pay to have two rats taken out of my garage,” she said.
Sprague and Duchesneau were present at the meeting, but once they heard the commissioners’ tone, didn’t want to speak for fear of “castigation from my fellow citizens” or ridicule from commissioners, Sprague wrote.
Lake insisted that wouldn’t be the case.
Duncan wondered whether other supporters who weren’t present realized they could have spoken during the meeting.
The Lake Alfred agenda is set up to allow public comment at the beginning of the meeting for items not on the agenda and the end of the meeting, for “anything under the sun,” as Daley says frequently.
There is nothing printed to suggest that the public is able to speak during discussion of specific agenda items, unless it’s a designated public hearing, but Daley said she always allows it.
“It’s really important we listen to the people. People can always talk on an agenda item if they want. It’s been that way since 2001. That’s why we’re there.“
But during discussion of the other ordinance on Monday’s agenda, regarding an amendment to the city’s personnel vacation policy, residents were not explicitly asked to comment. Lake said that’s because the public usually isn’t interested in things that don’t directly affect them, but they are allowed to speak on any item.
“It was one-sided. I’m sure if the people who brought it to staff and had worked on it had known it had a chance of getting rejected, then they would’ve come,” Duncan said.
Lake Alfred is one of three cities in Polk County that doesn’t allow chickens. Haines City requires that chickens be kept at least 100 yards from the nearest residential building. Most cities require that they be kept in coops or cages, and Lakeland requires that they be 50 feet from the nearest building. Winter Haven and Auburndale don’t specifically prohibit chickens.
Lake Alfred’s ordinance would have mandated that the coops be 10 feet from the owner’s property line and 25 feet from the nearest building.
Bartow, which also allows goats, had some issues with chickens running wild in the city in 2003, scratching up gardens and crowing at night.
The city amended part of its code to allow residents to catch wild chickens that were loose on their property or public right of ways, said Building Official Greg Lamb. A chicken wrangler even volunteered to come in and catch chickens and take them out of town.
But the city hasn’t had problems with chickens in the past five years, Lamb said.
Kevin Hulsey, a beekeeper and chicken egg farmer in Winter Haven, said he hasn’t had any problems with his 12 chickens escaping in the three years since he’s had them. He keeps them in a pen in his fenced-in backyard.
“I’m sure there are responsible chicken owners out there,” Daley said. “But overall, it’s very hard for code enforcement to stay on top of those that aren’t responsible.“
Both Daley and Planning Board Chairman John Dame said they don’t hear enough from the public on these decisions.
“We need more citizen input at our meetings to make better decisions,” Dame said. “You wonder where people stand.“
Commissioners asked the Planning Board to take another look at the dog section of the ordinance, which would have eliminated the two-dog restriction, allowing residents to have as many dogs as they want as long as they don’t cause a nuisance.
Some residents took issue with that as well, saying the self-policing it would create might increase animosity between neighbors.
But the commission came to a consensus that chickens should not be included.