Batavia chicken-raising plan moves ahead

The possibility of having backyard chickens at Batavia houses progressed Thursday, as the city services committee asked the development director to draw up a law allowing the practice.

The committee also decided to have a public comment time on the subject at its March 8 meeting, according to Chairman James Volk. “We’ll listen to everybody and anybody” who has an opinion one way or the other, he said.

In comments solicited by the city via an e-mail box, 46 commenters were in favor and 20 were opposed. Several residents researched and presented a proposal about allowing chickens last summer.

The proposal called for allowing no more than eight hens at a time, not allowing any roosters, prohibiting on-site slaughter, and requiring coops and runs to be located at least 20 feet from any neighboring structure.

The committee could vote to recommend the change to the city council at the March meeting, but some members thought they might need more time to study the proposed ordinance and suggested they would wait until the April committee meeting to vote, Volk said. If that happened, the measure would not reach the full city council until May.

In other business Thursday, the committee also discussed the plan to add a second sculpture to the Wilson Street bridge. It agreed to put the request for proposals on the Feb. 21 city council agenda. The mayor and city administrator have proposed offering a $22,500 commission to the artist with the best design. The theme is “history.”

Eventually, Batavia intends to have four sculptures on the bridge.