T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY City of Marshalltown Assistant Housing and Community Development Director Clayton Ender, left, discusses a potential chicken keeping ordinance with the city council at the tail end of Monday night’s meeting. The council voted 5-2 to refer the matter to the Planning and Zoning Commission for further review.

After a public commenter previously raised the issue back in June, the Marshalltown city council considered the possibility of allowing chicken keeping on residential properties within city limits during the final discussion item on Monday night’s meeting agenda.

“It wouldn’t be a meeting without discussing chicken keeping,” Mayor Pro-Tem Mike Ladehoff said to laughs around the room.

Assistant Housing and Community Development Director Clayton Ender explained that the current city ordinance prohibits all poultry and domestic fowl — which also includes turkeys, ducks and geese — on residential properties, but they are allowed on non-residential properties with specific setback requirements. In an urban setting, he said chicken keeping typically involves a small flock of two to 12 chickens, and some cities ban roosters while others don’t — which would be up to the council’s discretion.

Ender has reached out to staff members with the Iowa State University (ISU) agriculture department for guidance on the matter, and they told him it was essentially up to whatever the city council decided as they don’t research it. He did, however, look at adjacent communities for information on their ordinances.

• Le Grand prohibits chickens except by written consent of the city council or if the land is within an agricultural zoning district;

• Melbourne and State Center only allow them on agricultural land;

• Unincorporated areas of Marshall County largely prohibit the keeping of chickens except on agricultural land with some allowances inside the rural residential district or unclassified under certain conditions.

From there, he dove into several options: doing nothing and keeping chickens prohibited within city limits, allowing them broadly by right in a “one size fits all” scenario without special exceptions or variances from the process or incorporating them within the zoning code to allow for special use permits on cases that “don’t fit the mold” like multi-acre parcels if an individual applies through the Board of Adjustment.

Ultimately, Ender felt an ordinance should be determined by the comfort level of the council and the people of Marshalltown, and he recommended the final option because it allows for the establishment of a process to assess “unique conditions” and set a high threshold for the number of acres on an eligible process. Councilor Greg Nichols told Ender he had researched regulations in larger cities like Ankeny, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Iowa City, Dubuque, Urbandale, Marion, Cedar Falls and Waukee, where at least six chickens are allowed with no roosters, a permit process and setback requirements.

“I don’t see a lot of difference between this and six dogs. I’d rather have six chickens than six dogs,” Nichols said.

Ender responded that a lot of cities have been transitioning to allow chicken keeping at the request of citizens, who utilize them for egg production, meat and even companionship.

“I have had people in previous employment that had pet chickens, so it does happen. I’ve seen it in all sorts of fashions,” he said.

In Johnston, where Ender previously worked, two chickens were allowed on lots of 20,000 square feet or more, or a special use permit could be obtained for more chickens or to put them on a smaller lot. Des Moines used to allow hundreds of chickens on properties, which Ender called “pretty insane.”

Councilor Jeff Schneider quickly expressed strong opposition to the idea and worried about opening “Pandora’s Box.”

“If there’s any ambiguity in if we allow chickens or not, people are just gonna have chickens. Our citizens, unfortunately, don’t pay too close of attention to what the ordinances actually say too often,” he said. “I think this would be a nuisance problem (and) make a lot of neighbors angry at each other. I just think we leave it the way it is with chickens banned.”

Councilor Gary Thompson suggested that with the way the ordinance is currently written, chickens could already be kept in a parking lot like the one behind his house, which is a commercial property, and he could theoretically have 450 chickens if he rented the lot from the bank that owns it.

Ender confirmed that there is no cap on the number of chickens allowed on non-residential properties.

“This is crazy because there are loopholes to have chickens in town if you just put them on commercial property,” Thompson said. “The complaints I get is (that) they have the roosters or they have the breed that does still crow. I didn’t know hens crowed until I was in Missouri and found out that they have hens that crow.”

“It’s Missouri,” Ladehoff jokingly replied.

Thompson is a member of the committee addressing dog and cat nuisances and said they were already planning to send their findings to the Planning and Zoning Commission for review, and he suggested doing the same with poultry.

“I can see some cases where chickens could be kept. I don’t know what the answer is for the size of the lots. I know I have friends that have chickens in their neighbors’ yards, and no matter how many they have or how far the setback is, it still annoys me,” Thompson said. “Councilman Schneider’s right. There is no win on this, but I think we need to at least look at moving it into Planning and Zoning.”

Councilor Barry Kell said he found a similar list to the one Nichols had referenced at Omelet.com, and he noted that larger cities more comparable to Marshalltown were finding ways forward in terms of allowing chickens with reasonable regulations.

“I don’t run as much as I should, but in the mornings, I hear roosters around town. We already have chickens. I just don’t think this is a fight that we can put up any longer, but let’s work to create the right parameters whether that be Planning and Zoning or we set that direction. I would be in support of that.”

Ladehoff grew up on a farm in the Beaman-Conrad area with 300 chickens, and he joked that in his opinion, the only good chicken in town is served with mashed potatoes and gravy or in a burrito. He did, however, note that other cities are rewriting their ordinances to allow for chicken keeping, but also warned that without yearly inspections, some people will change over to fighting cocks.

He didn’t support delineating by lot size as he felt that chickens should be available to everyone “up to a certain point” that they no longer had enough room for them. Ladehoff also noted that a chicken disease had infected the feral cat population in Cedar Rapids, and they were worried it could transfer to humans.

“I also have a problem with our police chasing chickens. I think our police have things that are better to do,” he said. “Hens also make a lot of noise, not just roosters. Let’s not kid ourselves.”

Ladehoff was also concerned about a large potential increase in staff time dedicated to chickens and how corpses would be disposed of after the animals die.

“There’s a lot more to chickens, trust me. Yes, I can understand you wanting fresh eggs and everything like that, but if you have four chickens, you will lose money on eggs. You will,” he said. “Granted, your eggs will be fresher, I get that. You might have a pet, OK? But overall, just put them with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy, OK. I think that we have bigger things to get after than allowing chickens at this time.”

Nichols suggested referring the matter to P&Z and setting “reasonable limits” along with limits on how many cats and dogs can be owned — City Clerk Alicia Hunter then clarified that dogs are limited, but cats are not. Thompson reiterated his recommendation to do something similar as a means of giving Ender a “head start” because the animal committee will likely present the same recommendation in a few months anyway.

Schneider commented that he “could not believe” chickens would be popular in Marshalltown as he had not heard from a single resident during his four years on the council that it was something they wanted. One person had approached Hunter, but Schneider said dozens of people had complained to him about chickens and did not think it would be a politically popular move.

Councilor Mark Mitchell noted that the woman who had commented on the issue during a previous meeting was allowed to keep horses and cows on her property but not chickens, and he felt that was a problem.

“If you’re gonna be able to have other livestock, you should be able to have chickens too,” Mitchell said.

Thompson motioned to send it to P&Z, and after a second from Nichols, it passed by a 5-2 vote with Ladehoff and Schneider opposed.