Bloomington's looser roost rules still unhatched

Would allowing more people to keep chickens in Bloomington open the door to squalor and decay, or could it be a step in letting locavores have more control over their lives and diets?

The City Council, which was expected to settle the chicken-keeping question on Monday, twice voted 3-3 on proposals for a reworked animal ordinance. The deadlocks push a decision to Nov. 1, when all seven council members are expected to be present.

The proposed ordinance would allow up to four laying hens to be kept on residential lots as long as coops were at least 30 feet from lot lines and at least 50 feet from neighboring homes. Coops would have to be screened by at least 4 feet of solid fencing.

That would allow about 80 percent of Bloomington residents who live in single-family homes to keep hens. At present, setback requirements dating from the 1950s permit less than one-half of 1 percent of homeowners -- about 90 of 25,000 homes in the city -- to legally keep chickens.

Real estate agent Randi Bishop told the council that one chicken is too many. She called the proposed ordinance "part of the decline of Bloomington," a "monumental livability issue" and said property values would plummet. Other opponents said they wouldn't have moved to Bloomington had they known chickens could be kept there, and said that the birds are dirty, territorial and could transmit avian flu.

Chicken advocates pooh-poohed the possibility of flu transmission and said the new ordinance supports people's desire to get their food locally. They said worries about hen manure, clucking and odors pale in comparison with the issues that multiple dogs create.

Mayor Gene Winstead said he didn't want to start down the path of allowing farm animals in the community. Joining him in "no" votes were Amy Grady, who said she was torn but worried that not everyone would be a responsible chicken owner, and Vern Wilcox, who said a more liberal chicken ordinance was a Pandora's box.

On the other side were Steve Elkins, Thomas Hulting and Karen Nordstrom. Hulting said he trusted that people who go through the trouble of building a coop and buying chickens would take care of them.

Nordstrom, who as a child had a pet chicken, agreed with Hulting that it was wise for the city to "keep outside of people's back yards." She said hens tend to be so low-key that most residents didn't even know they were being kept in the city.

"I doubt I would have a problem moving next door to someone with chickens," she said. "I would have a problem moving next door to someone with four barking dogs."

Unless one of the six changes his or her mind, the fate of the chickens already kept in Bloomington will rest with Steve Peterson, who missed this week's meeting.