Over the past year, the Rockville City Council has debated development and school overcrowding, pay increases for police officers and vacancies in key city staff positions.
But no issue has drawn more attention than the suggestion of allowing residents to keep and raise a few backyard chickens.
“This is a city. It’s not a third-world country,” said backyard chicken opponent Joanne Barron on Monday, before the council voted 3-2 to allow residents to have five hens if their backyards are big enough.
“The basic problem is that urban chickens are totally inconsistent with smart growth,” said Brigitta Mullican, who added that she’s opposed to some aspects of smart growth. “This is not a question of government restricting liberty and freedom. This is a matter of what’s right for Rockville.”
The proposal was part of a package of changes to the city’s animal control laws that include requiring pet cats to be licensed, adding a trap-neuter-return program for feral cats and directing city staff to look into creating an off-leash dog park.
But the chickens stole the show, as they have for much of the past eight months.
Council member Julie Palakovich Carr, who introduced all the measures last year, said the council received 87 emails from Rockville residents in support of backyard hens and 88 against.
The packet of public hearing testimony included 227 pages of emails from people inside and outside the city and academic research on backyard chickens and feral cats.
The chicken law, which will become effective July 1, will allow residents to keep up to five female chickens, only in their backyards and only if coops and cages are located at least five feet from the property line and at least 40 feet from the home on the lot.
Roosters (male chickens) are known to make more noise, which is why they weren’t allowed in the revised ordinance.
Anyone requesting a city permit to keep chickens must notify next-door neighbors. A permit doesn’t require a neighbor’s approval.
The policy is similar to the one in the city of Gaithersburg, though advocates there are pushing the city to also allow roosters.
Montgomery County allows homeowners to raise backyard chickens, though the County Council last year balked at easing setback restrictions for coops after the county’s top health official raised salmonella concerns.
“These are all good and reasonable restrictions to protect the neighborhood,” said Clark Reed, a city resident who spoke in favor of the new rule. “I believe we will be perceived as an open, tolerant, forward-thinking place to raise a family.”
The city had no policy on backyard chicken coops until 2006, when it banned the practice.
Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton, who on Monday voted against allowing backyard hens, said the city at that time “must have had some issues” that encouraged officials to create the ban.
Larry Reynolds, a city resident for more than 50 years, spoke against allowing hens. He said it was the first time he had addressed the council since 1979.
“If there are four properties that adjoin our property, it’s conceivable we could have 20 [hens],” Reynolds said. “With all due respect, hens do make noise, not only roosters.”
Council member Tom Moore said the setback requirements for coops make it unlikely that many Rockville homeowners will have the amount of space required to keep hens, which he labeled a fair compromise.
“Anybody who has lived in this city for 50 years has lived in a city that’s allowed chickens for 41 years,” Moore said. “It’s about the liberty of our citizens.”
Council member Beryl Feinberg, who voted with Newton against the chickens, said she’s read about fires in chicken coops caused by faulty wiring to heating units and chickens that die as a result of cold weather conditions.
She also worried about “Taj Mahal-like coops,” that could be as tall as 14 feet and “be unsightly” for next-door neighbors.
Council member Virginia Onley sided with Plakovich Carr and Moore for the three votes the measure needed to pass.
“I’m going to say that I’m very glad we’re coming to the end of this,” Newton said, even as it became clear she’d be on the losing side of the vote.
