Missoula News

committee split

Chicken Ordinance Still Can’t Get Off the Ground

By Emily Darrell, 9-26-07

After a Wednesday morning meeting of the Missoula Public Safety and Health Committee the issue of whether Missoulians will be allowed to keep chickens in their yards is still undecided. The eight member committee was evenly split down the middle on the so-called “chicken ordinance.”

Council members were unsure on how to proceed on the proposed ordinance after the vote came out tied so it was decided that City Attorney Jim Nugent would be contacted to resolve the dispute.

The urban chicken debate was sparked last spring when Ward 3 city councilwoman Stacey Rye was approached by several of her constituents who wanted to see the ban on chicken coops within Missoula city limits lifted. Though Rye was at first a bit skeptical on the idea of keeping chickens in the city, after some research she decided lifting the ban was not a bad idea and became chair of the Urban Fowl Subcommittee.

A public hearing in August revealed that there are both staunchly pro-chicken and adamantly anti-chicken factions within Missoula.

Despite provisions in the ordinance meant to minimize smell, noise and other disturbances to one’s neighbors, some committee members and Missoula residents just plain don’t want chickens in the city. At Wednesday’s meeting, pro-chicken committee members managed to agree that there should be an annual fee of $15 for those residents wanting to keep chickens. Among the committee members who opposed the ordinance there was some concern that chickens could cause a financial burden on Animal Control services, though the fee provision was not enough to cause them to vote pro-chicken.

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