Our View - Urban chicken issue not going away in Iowa City

Printed in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Feb. 16, 2010.

Iowa City residents' discussion of urban chickens is going to go on whether the Iowa City Council takes up the issue or not. That's because the New Pioneer Food Co-op is going to host two free public forums on the topic next month ("Urban chicken debate returns," Feb. 11).

At this point, it seems that there are not enough City Council votes to revive the chicken discussion ("Chickens lacking council's support," Feb. 12). We've previously editorialized that "the council is chicken when it comes to chickens" and pointed out that, with hundreds of petitioners asking the council to consider the issue, councilors should be responsive.

Our guess is that there is going to be far more clucking about this whole thing because the council won't take up the issue than there would be if it just made a decision, one way or the other.

New Pioneer education and member services manager Theresa Carbrey said the co-op is trying to encourage more local food production.

"This is as local as it can get -- in your own backyard," she said.

The first forum titled "Raising Urban Chickens" will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. March 2 at the Coralville co-op. It will feature speaker Misha Goodman, director of the Iowa City/Coralville Animal Care and Adoption Center. She will offer tips raising urban chickens.

The second forum titled "We Love Backyard Chickens" will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. March 11 at the Coralville co-op. It will feature speakers Stacey Driscoll and Alicia Diehl of IC Friends of Urban Chickens. A pro-urban chicken event, it will look at the joys and challenges of urban chickening.

We suggest the council commit to taking this issue back up within the next year, put it to a vote and then move on.

Our View - Hold off on chicken rules until next year

Printed in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Sept. 11, 2009.

Two Iowa City staff members are presenting a mixed recommendation to the Iowa City Council concerning whether in-town property owners should be allowed to raise chickens in their backyards. The council will discuss the matter Monday.

Both Douglas Boothroy, director of housing and inspections services, and Misha Goodman, director of animal services, agree on an extensive list of minimum standards they think should be put in place if the council does decide to allow backyard chickens. In addition to detailed instructions about how the birds should be housed, the list includes:

• Requiring residents to apply for an annual permit that will include an inspection,

• Limiting backyard chickens only to properties whose primary use is single-family dwelling,

• Requiring residents to notify all abutting property owners before a permit is issued and

• Limiting the number of birds per property to four hens, no roosters.

But Boothroy and Goodman disagree on whether the city should allow chickens in residential areas at all. Goodman said the chickens wouldn't present any more difficult problems for her staff than other animals do. She said her staff would handle problems with owners who mistreat or abandon their chickens just as they handle similar situations with the problem owners of dogs, cats, iguanas, etc.

"To me, there has to be a good reason for this not to happen," Goodman said. "We have a lot of citizens requesting the ability to keep chickens in their backyards. It's not something that is harmful in most ways. So I don't see a reason not to do it."

But Goodman also said she knows whenever the city council implements a rule, someone, somewhere, violates it. So she is asking the council to wait to make any changes in the current policy until at least next year. Because animal control is still dealing with the aftermath of last year's flood, she is concerned about giving any additional responsibility to her officers right now.

Boothroy goes even further and recommends the council not approve backyard chickens at all because his department doesn't have the staff to deal with the complaints. He said he also worries that, because it's been decades since chickens were allowed in city residential areas, backyard chickens would spark additional feuds between neighbors who differ in their perceptions of whether chickens are a threat or a benefit to the quality of their lives and to the value of their property.

We side with Goodman in this debate. The rules she and Boothroy have suggested would provide clear guidelines that owners can understand and that city staff can enforce. And because the permits would have to be approved annually, chicken owners -- and their neighbors -- will have ample opportunities to re-evaluate whether the birds are as beneficial as once thought.

We hope the council sees fit to approve the restrictions ironed out by Goodman and Boothroy and to have Iowa City join the growing list of cities that are allowing residents to raise a limited numbers of chickens in their backyards.

Sensible, urban chickens?

(Printed in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, June 4, 2009)

The Iowa City Council should beware.

After Michael Perry reads tonight from his new book, "Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting," a few more dozen local residents might start thinking about what it would be like to have a coop in their own backyards. Jane Hamilton, Perry's fellow Wisconsinite author, said the book made her want to "get chickens immediately."

It's not surprising that "Coop" provides the same philosophically poetic perspective on rural life that Perry showed in "Population: 485" and "Truck: A Love Story." But this time, Perry mixes in all the lessons to be learned by rearing the three "p's" in the title on a Wisconsin farm. The result honors the rural ideal without over-romanticizing it.

When considering the effect that moving to the country would have on his daughter, for example, Perry writes, "But I hope we don't burden Amy with the idea that living outside the city limits is an inherently pious act. That 'rural' equals 'righteous.' As a country kid, I took a while to round the bend on that one, but thanks to a blend of peak oil posts, Kwame Anthony Appiah's 'Cosmopolitanism,' and a week spent buying groceries at a bodega in Bushwick, I am well on my way to reconstructing all residual prejudice. Let's hear it for sensible urbanism."

The council still needs to decide whether that "sensible urbanism" should include urban chickens.

Opinion editor Jeff Charis-Carlson can be contacted at jcharisc@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5435.