Washington Terrace chicken proponents to keep up fight for birds
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- A contingent of backyard chicken advocates in Washington Terrace gather in the yard of Gail Melycher on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. From left are Leland Geiger, an advocate who asked to remain anonymous, Melycher and Amanda Hartley. Melycher and Hartley both have backyard chickens and will have to get rid of them after their push to permit the birds in the city fell short.
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- Three chickens wander in a coop in the backyard of Amanda Hartley’s Washington Terrace home on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. They are, from left, Rita, Sunny and Broccoli. Hartley will have to get rid of them after the push by chicken advocates to permit the birds in the city fell short.
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- Backyard chicken advocates Gail Melycher, left, and Amanda Hartley pose with birds in Melycher’s yard on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. Melycher and Hartley both have backyard chickens and will have to get rid of them after their push to permit the birds in the city fell short.
WASHINGTON TERRACE — Washington Terrace officials have spoken, saying no to backyard chickens.
But don’t count proponents of allowing birds in the city out. Those who currently have them in violation of city ordinance may try to find new homes for the critters, but they’re also going to keep up the push for a change to city code on the matter.
“Ultimately we keep going to City Council meetings. We keep the issue going. Issues die when you stop talking about them,” said Amanda Hartley, a chicken owner who’s spearheaded the most recent push.
The issue has been a topic of on-and-off debate since last spring, and on Sept. 6, the City Council voted 4-1 to keep city guidelines as is, to continue the prohibition on chickens. Among the concerns, said City Manager Tom Hanson, are the potential adverse impacts to yard upkeep in Washington Terrace if birds are allowed and the city manpower that would be required to monitor compliance with new guidelines.
City Councilperson Scott Barker expressed concern that chickens would attract raccoons and rats, according to minutes from the Sept. 6 meeting. He also contrasted Washington Terrace with a more rural setting, like western Weber County, where animals, perhaps, might be apt.
“He stated that he and his wife wanted to be in an urban community and not have what is out west with cows and chickens,” read the minutes.
Hartley, though, senses that most residents are OK with chickens, allowed in all other Weber County locales except South Ogden. She wants the city to conduct a poll on the issue to get a clearer gauge of public sentiment and if the public says no, she’d back off the issue. Lacking that sort of action, however, she broaches the idea of making chickens an issue in 2023 elections, when three City Council posts will be on the ballot.
If the city doesn’t at least try to get a more accurate read of public sentiment, she said, she and others will investigate who may be willing to run for City Council. Some, she went on, have indicated a willingness to vie for City Council. The seats now held by Barker, Carey Seal and Randy Ferlin — who all voted to keep the chicken prohibition in place — are up for grabs in next year’s elections.
Councilperson Jeff West also voted to maintain the prohibition while Jill Christiansen cast the lone no vote.
“We feel they are making a decision without taking the people’s opinion into account,” Hartley said. In knocking on doors over the weeks and months to spread the word about the issue, she said she’s been “surprised at the support” she’s encountered.
‘A SUSTAINABLE FOOD SOURCE’
Backyard chicken proponents cite the eggs the birds produce, a good source of protein, and their contribution to creating a more self-sustaining form of living, among many other things.
“I am looking for a sustainable food source that works with my garden,” said Gail Melycher. She lives next door to Hartley and, like Hartley, keeps chickens in her backyard notwithstanding the Washington Terrace prohibition.
They are also a good way to teach kids about the life cycle and caring for animals, said Hartley, the mother of two young children. She built a coop and introduced chickens to her backyard after miscommunication with Washington Terrace officials led to her to believe they were allowed in the city. Melycher followed suit, also based on the misunderstanding.
After learning the birds, in fact, weren’t allowed in the city, Hartley launched her drive for change to Washington Terrace’s rules. That has entailed appearances at several City Council meetings, an online petition (signed by 391 people as of Friday afternoon) and more.
It’s apparently not the first time the issue has popped up in Washington Terrace. Barker said the issue has come up several times in recent years, according to Sept. 6 meeting minutes, and it was a hot topic in Ogden in 2017. After months of debate, the Ogden City Council voted 4-3 on Dec. 19, 2017, to allow backyard chickens.
Whatever the case, Hanson, the Washington Terrace city manager, worries about the financial burden on the city if chickens are allowed. “It is evident that we do not have the personnel to manage chickens considering how many people were illegally housing chickens on their property with no ordinance allowing that activity,” he said in a staff report to the City Council ahead of the Sept. 6 meeting.
Speaking to the Standard-Examiner, he also expressed concern that allowing chickens would potentially have a deleterious effect on home and yard maintenance in the city. Some in the city have a hard time with yard upkeep, and if chickens are allowed, it could just complicate the efforts that much more, he contends.
Proponents dismiss the notion that keeping chickens distracts from yard maintenance. Moreover, properly maintaining and cleaning coops minimizes problems with rats and raccoons, they say. Plus, chickens — noisy roosters are typically not allowed in cities that permit the birds — are relatively quiet.
Her neighbors “didn’t even know I had chickens because there weren’t smell issues, there weren’t noise issues,” Hartley said.
In the near term, both Hartley and Melycher say they will find new homes for their birds in cities that allow them. Along with the no vote to chickens on Sept. 6, city officials have given those who have the birds until Oct. 6 to get rid of them, when they’ll start cracking down.
Another Washington Terrace chicken owner, who asked to remain anonymous, said she has chickens in her yard and that she knows of several others as well.
“If they’re not out of the city on the sixth (of October), then on the seventh we’ll be issuing citations,” Hanson said.
Both Hartley and Melycher, though, are hopeful they’ll be able to spur change and eventually take their displaced birds back in, legally. “Ultimately, the end goals is to get the code changed,” Hartley said.
