Will 6 chickens and a duck get to stay in Schaumburg? Restored village board to decide
Things are looking up for the chances of six chickens and a duck getting to keep their Schaumburg mailing address next week.
And the responsibility for breaking the village board's previous deadlock on the decision may not fall entirely on the shoulders of newly appointed Trustee Esha Patel after all.
Last month's 2-2 tie was the result of not only the differing opinions of the four trustees who voted, but the recusal of Trustee Jamie Clar and the recent death of Trustee Frank Kozak.
Even Mayor Tom Dailly's potential tiebreaking vote would have been useless. A special-use permit for the birds on the 27,000-square-foot residential property on the 300 block of Pleasant Drive requires four "yes" votes from the village board.
But Clar since has rethought his original recusal. He said Village Attorney Lance Molina advised him that his merely being a neighbor of the family seeking permission to keep the chickens and duck doesn't constitute a conflict of interest.
Clar plans to vote "yes" on the special-use permit Tuesday, based on the more than half-acre size of the property, the distance of the shed and outdoor pen from neighbors, and their well-maintained condition.
He doesn't expect these particular circumstances to recur in many other parts of the village.
"If it was a smaller lot, I would have a problem with it," Clar said.
Patel could not be reached for comment Friday. But even if she were to vote "no" on Tuesday and cause another tie, Dailly said he would break that tie by voting in favor of the permit.
He added, he does not want backyard chickens to be allowed generally, and likely would be skeptical if this were a proposal for a yet-to-be-built coop. But Dailly said he feels the unique circumstances of this case cause no harm.
Though village officials discovered the unpermitted birds only last year, the family admitted that the noisier duck is the only recent addition to their decadeslong practice of keeping chickens there.
The village's health division examined the 16-by-12-foot shed and 12-by-12-foot outdoor pen and found them to be as well maintained as the owner claimed, Schaumburg Community Planner Marisa Krawiec said.
There is a door to the shed timed to open at sunrise and close at sunset so the chickens can go out to the pen during daylight hours. The duck occasionally is let out of the pen to swim in the pond on the property.
Village staff members were persuaded to recommend permission for the chickens as long as none are roosters, but stopped short of recommending the duck because it could be heard from the front of the property when inspectors arrived.
Nevertheless, plan commissioners were convinced by the family's plea to include the duck in their own unanimous recommendation for approval in November.
The neighbor closest to the property sent an email of support for the whole request while another neighbor from across the street endorsed the request in person at the plan commission meeting.
Krawiec said no neighbors have spoken against the request.
This is the first formal request to keep chickens the village has received since 1993, when permission was granted to keep up to 20 chickens on a property on the 200 block of Wakefield Lane that's nearly as large and as screened from neighbors.
Though that resident still lives there, the chickens haven't been kept there for some time, Krawiec said.
There have been five other instances in the past few years in which the keeping of chickens, roosters or ducks was reported to the village through customer service requests. But in all those cases, the owners got rid of the animals without even requesting a permit.