Red Deer will likely change a bylaw that’s not clear on what kinds of animals people can keep in residential areas, says the city’s inspections and licensing manager.
It’s been years since the department received any complaints about chickens in peoples’ yard, Joyce Boon said on Friday. She said she is not certain, but believes the complaint focused on some noisy roosters.
At this point, the city’s land-use bylaw is grey on whether livestock can be kept in residential districts because it doesn’t deal with farm animals at all, said Boon.
“The bylaw doesn’t specifically say you can or can’t have urban chickens.”
Normally, if an item is neither permitted nor discretionary, that means it’s not allowed, she said.
Pets are allowed, but there is a question of whether chickens, pigs or other animals normally kept as livestock can be considered to be pets, said Boon.
Staff in her department will likely start drafting a bylaw amendment “sooner rather than later” to prohibit people from keeping chickens or other farm animals on property that is zoned residential, she said.
Agriculture is allowed only on land that is zoned A1, which covers rural areas that have been annexed into the city and held for future residential development. Once those lands are changed to residential use, agricultural uses are no longer allowed, said Boon.
“Looking ahead, I think we could make the case that, yes, the chickens are not allowed. We need to probably identify it in our bylaw, which is what the City of Calgary did,” she said.
“I don’t imagine this is the last we’ll hear of this at this point.”
Boon said she was not aware that anyone was keeping chickens in Red Deer until earlier this week, when she read an article about efforts to start a Red Deer chapter of CLUCK — Canadian Liberated Urban Chickens Club.
Red Deer residents Adrienne and Everett Tetz, who started their chicken flock in March with a batch of new chicks, are looking for more people to join them in a local chapter of the lobby group formed in Calgary by people who want the right to keep chickens in their backyards.
Adrienne Tetz said on Friday that she has received a number of responses — all supportive — since she and Everett went public with what they have done so far and their hopes for the future.
Mayor Morris Flewwelling, councillors and senior staff were attending a retreat in Sylvan Lake an therefore not available for comment.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com
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