ROY — Bees will buzz, but chickens won’t be able to cluck in all areas of Roy.
After almost a year of discussion and consideration about allowing bees and chickens to be raised in residential areas, the city council recently voted to allow bees to be raised in all zones of the city. However, in a separate vote, they rejected the same option for livestock. Both votes were 3-1.
Councilman Willard S. Cragun was in favor of both bees and livestock and was the lone vote to support the livestock ordinance. He said that having livestock teaches kids to work and mentioned that several residents had contacted him in favor of both ordinances.
Councilman Dave Tafoya voted against the proposal for bees. Councilman Michael Stokes did not attend the meeting.
Councilmen John Cordova and Brad Hilton said they had heard both positive and negative comments about the issue, but both felt the livestock ordinance might be too broad and should be be more specific to rabbits and chickens.
“When people hear it’s chickens and bunnies, they feel differently, but I worry about livestock,” Cordova said.
Livestock will still be allowed in agriculture zones within the city.
Hilton said that in 2005, before an ordinance change restricted livestock and bees to only the agricultural zone, both were allowed in at least three other zones. He liked the idea of going back to the 2005 zoning.
Hilton said he was hesitant to favor the chicken ordinance because the planning commission didn’t necessarily endorse it. But city planner Jared Hall told the council, “it was the best they could do.”
Residents would be required to obtain a permit to raise both bees and livestock. If a violation occurs, they would have a small window to correct the infraction. If the infraction is not cleared up in that time period, the city would clear it up at the resident’s expense.
“Right now we are falling short on code enforcement because there is so much. We will have pile after pile and never get caught up,” Tafoya said.
Many residents are in violation of the current livestock ordinance, but were told to wait until the council made a decision on a new ordinance to see if they would be in compliance. But because the council voted against livestock, those residents must now come into compliance.
“The problem won’t be cleaned up overnight, but it will be cleaned up,” Hall said.
The city deals with code enforcement on a complaint basis. If the code enforcement officer is out in the field and sees someone out of compliance the resident is ticketed, but it usually starts from a complaint.
Hall said that same method of enforcement will continue.
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