- October 11, 2024
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Is a backyard chicken program an egg-ceptional idea? The Palm Coast City Council doesn’t seem to think so as Council members failed to reach a consensus on a proposed two-year pilot program.
The council did agree to ask staff to come back with information on the cost and timeframe of providing a survey to gauge residents’ opinions on the program.
But three council members are pretty certain that a survey would reveal that the majority of residents oppose allowing backyard chickens in Palm Coast.
“If it was put on the ballot, I think it loses 85-15,” Nick Klufas said at an Aug. 8 workshop.
Theresa Carli Pontieri said she is “100% in favor” of the pilot program that was presented by Barbara Grossman, the city’s code enforcement manager.
The program would limit backyard chickens to 25 residents who would purchase $50 permits on a first-come, first-served basis. There would be a limit of four hens per homesteaded single-family home.
Participants would have to inform their neighbors of their involvement in the program. Coops no taller than 8 feet would be in backyards at least 10 feet from the rear property lines and could not exceed 100 feet. A fire retardant bin for manure and a locked metal bin for food to keep out rodents would be required. Participants would also be required to take two certification classes on care and raising chickens and manure management.
Regulations would bar slaughtering or fighting chickens or selling eggs or fertilizer. Eggs would be for personal consumption only.
But Vice Mayor Ed Danko and council member Cathy Heighter do not feel it is enough for residents to simply inform their neighbors that they will be raising backyard chickens. They believe neighbors should have the right of consent.
In talking to his neighbors, Danko said, he couldn’t find a single person in favor of allowing backyard chickens within city limits.
“The reaction I got ... was this was not why we moved to Palm Coast; otherwise we can live out in the country.”
— ED DANKO
“They were concerned about their home being devalued. They had a lot of concerns: the smell, the noise, whatever,” Danko said. “The reaction I got from all of them was this was not why we moved to Palm Coast; otherwise we can live out in the country.”
Pontieri said the pilot program is strict and limited to just 25 families in a city of 100,000.
“It’s very limited. Over two years we get to see what 25 permits for backyard chickens look like,” she said.
But Danko and Heighter said that if approved, the program would surely grow.
“Most of the time, if we give people an inch, they take a mile,” Heighter said. “So if we give 25 people permits to have chickens in their backyards, you’re going to end up with a hundred. How are we going to control that?”
With five families pushing the council to allow backyard chickens, Klufas suggested the city simply allow them to do so without changing the code or starting a pilot program.
“I think they have been here enough times and made enough of a kerfuffle,” he said. “My question to them is, why don’t you have the chickens? Why does this need to become an issue?”
Klufas said the city could see how five households raising chickens would work, but he said a pilot program would present a perception he wants to avoid.
“I’m afraid if we do any kind of pilot program, the headline is going to say, ‘Palm Coast allows chickens.’ I’ve had chickens, I know chickens won’t be a problem, but Palm Coast is not ready for that,” Klufas said.
It’s very limited. Over two years we get to see what 25 permits for backyard chickens look like.”
— THERESA CARLI PONTIERI
In an effort to come up with a consensus, Mayor David Alfin asked the council members if they were willing to limit the pilot program to five households.
Danko said he was against any program without public feedback. Heighter said she would prefer a community program in which residents share an area to raise chickens.
“I would like to see this program allow some kind of education for children in the community, a program where children with special needs might benefit,” Heighter said.
Grossman prefaced her presentation by saying the city doesn’t have any plans that would accommodate community chickens at this time. In public comment, backyard chicken advocates said they were not interested in joining a community chicken program.
Klufas said even five permits would generate headlines proclaiming the city allows chickens. When Pontieri asked him why that matters, Klufas said he did not want to be associated with supporting a program allowing chickens when 85% of the public would be against it.
Pontieri, who called chicken keeping a property rights issue, said she believed residents would support the pilot program if they were educated about what it entails. Danko agreed that the council needs public feedback. The council agreed to have staff present information about a survey.
