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new and updated OKC urban chicken update

OklaMoni
10 years ago

Urban chickens proposal doesn't fly with council

Urban chickens may yet have their day in Oklahoma City.

Tuesday just wasn't it.

The Oklahoma City Council rejected a proposal to allow chickens on residential lots in urban and many suburban neighborhoods.

The 7-2 decision preserves rules that restrict city chickens to lots of 1 acre or more.

Despite rejecting the idea of urban chickens, at least for the moment, the council unanimously agreed to proposals intended to enhance other aspects of urban farming.

The proposal to ease restrictions would have allowed residents living on lots of less than 1 acre to keep up to six hens.

Roosters would have been forbidden; proper coops and sufficiently spacious yards would have been required.

Mayor Mick Cornett said he thought a pilot program in neighborhoods where chickens already are common would mesh well with Ward 6 Councilwoman Meg Salyer's suggestion that the city could set up a permit system for keeping chickens.

"I think there might be a way to ease into this," Cornett said.

The mayor said advocates for urban chickens "make some very good points."

They said lifting restrictions on egg-producing livestock would help Oklahoma City catch up with trends favoring locally produced food.

And being able to keep hens in the backyard could help lower-income residents provide economical, wholesome food for themselves and their families, they said.

Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid and Ward 4 Councilman Pete White voted to ease the restrictions.

Shadid contended Oklahoma City has a significant poverty problem and said the opportunity to produce healthy food in the backyard "outweighs any argument I've heard."

Anticipating defeat, Shadid wrote in an email that there are ways such as applying for zoning changes for residents to obtain approval for chickens under existing city codes.

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