Batavia panel delays chicken vote

A Batavia committee Wednesday put off recommending whether to allow people to raise chickens in the city, instead tinkering with the suggested rules about minimum coop size, building permits, how to investigate problems and the like.

The city services committee will discuss the proposed law at its next meeting in May.

Discussion got a little heated.

Alderman Michael O’Brien opposed allowing chickens, suggesting the “silent majority” of Batavians would be opposed to backyard chickens if aldermen asked them all and that the committee shouldn’t just pay attention to the 150 people who bothered to send the city e-mails on the subject or attend committee meetings.

Alderman Eldon Frydendall said when he asked people what they thought about chicken-keeping, invariably they brought up problems they have with their neighbors’ dogs.

“If you go door-to-door you would get enough complaints about dogs that we would have to outlaw them,” he said. Frydendall favored the proposal.

But O’Brien tired of people comparing problems with chickens (such as noise and odor) to problems with dogs (such as noise from barking.)

“I just think we are talking apples and oranges here. Everyone keeps bringing in the dogs,” he said. A dog can be brought inside if it is misbehaving, said Alderman Janet Jungels, who opposes the measure. But chicken-raising resident Jennifer Warta, one of two residents who proposed the law, pointed out she can hear her neighbors dogs’ barking at the window from inside.

O’Brien agreed with a resident who pointed out the city is considering spending more than a million dollars to improve the looks of the city, via a downtown streetscape project. Having chickens doesn’t fit, he said: “It is a city; it is no longer an agrarian town or village.”

Aldermen approved amendments requiring all coops and fenced enclosures to get a building permit, and to get such a permit before building the items.

They also discussed setting a registration fee at $50, but held off, instructing staff to figure out how much to charge to cover the city’s costs with the changes they requested.