Chickens get OK; now on with city's business Chickens get OK; now on with city's business (January 06, 2006)

We never expected that with its plate full of major municipal issues--from the General Plan to planning the Bernal parkland to prioritizing and funding key capital improvement projects--that the first City Council discussion in 2006 would focus on backyard chickens. But then this is Pleasanton, home of the Alameda County Fair and an active Abbie 4-H club--a city that despite its near-70,000 population and stately custom homes and neighborhoods, still has that small town feel that we all enjoy. Many of us probably know families that raise chickens, keeping them as pets in fenced-in backyards, with children who raise them, learning about how chickens contribute to a healthy food chain, and perhaps even showing them at the Fair. Few realized until last fall, however, that you need a permit to have chickens. Unlike dogs, where you can obtain a license at City Hall or with cats, which don't require licenses or proof of shots, it's taken a costly and full-dress Planning Commission hearing to legally keep chickens here.

Recently, the city has received several requests to process the required conditional use permits to keep chickens as pets in residential districts and for related 4-H Club projects. Two of those requests made it to the Planning Commission which spent about four hours debating the issue, including a public hearing that kept developers of multi-million-dollar shopping centers waiting in front row seats with their PowerPoint presentations at the ready while a family pleaded for permission to keep their four hens. Earlier the commission heard a similar request to keep two chickens, a bid that was protested by a neighbor two doors away who said the early morning clucking disturbed her "quiet time" on her second floor bedroom deck. Both applicants eventually received the conditional use permits, but only for a year and only for the birds identified in their petition. After going through the process, with some chuckles but also concerns that more important business was being delayed, planners asked city staff and the council to prepare and approve an amendment to the Municipal Code that would allow residents to keep up to six hens in designated zoning districts without permits. Male chickens (roosters or capons) are still prohibited, although the early morning rooster's crow might be a welcome sound for those from rural America where roosters remain king of the barnyard.

Tuesday's debate included some light-hearted discussions over how long chickens sleep (from sunset to sun-up), their egg-producing process (about 10 minutes for each egg with about a minute of cackling after the egg is laid) and their life span (from five to 10 years but sometimes up to 15 years if conditions are optimal). The new law, approved by the council last Tuesday after about two hours of public debate, also dictates how the backyard coops should be maintained, where they can be located and a requirement that the owner be required to maintain the chickens in a healthy condition and to have them inoculated against diseases such as the Avian Influenza. Some on the council seemed surprised that there's any law regulating chickens; others that chickens are allowed in a city like ours. Councilwoman Cindy McGovern asked why we're so concerned about chickens when the city allows cats to roam free without permits or vaccinations, and also allows anyone to keep as many as four dogs, even in a small apartment. As a result, we may see more regulations governing four-legged pets. But for now, the great debates over keeping chickens in Pleasanton are over, and our city leaders can move on to more pressing issues facing our community.

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