Vermillion City Council indefinitely tables chicken ordinance in close vote
Residents living in Vermillion who want the option of gathering fresh chicken eggs from their backyards will have to consider other alternatives.
In a 5-4 vote Monday evening, the Vermillion City Council moved to indefinitely table a proposed ordinance that would allow residents to keep up to four chickens in backyard coops within city limits.
John Prescott, the city manager of Vermillion, said the ordinance was proposed after a resident told the council in 2015 that she wanted to have chickens within city limits.
“Staff had kind of researched some different ideas and researched some different chicken ordinances in the state and around the upper Midwest,” he said. “(They) brought back some ideas of ‘Here’s what we’ve found that these other communities have done, where the discussion has gone… issues related to it, etc.’ ”
Out of the eight South Dakota communities researched, Sioux Falls, Watertown and Yankton were the only cities to have ordinances allowing chickens to be kept within city limits.
“It’s sort of an issue that a lot of communities in the state of South Dakota over the last year have dealt with,” Prescott said.
South Dakota Chicken Ordinances
Aberdeen – Not allowed.
Brookings – An ordinance was adopted in early 2016 to permit the issuance of a small number of permits for backyard chickens. The ordinance was referred to a vote and defeated 68 percent to 32 percent.
Volga – An ordinance was adopted in 2015 to permit backyard chickens. The ordinance was referred to a vote and defeated.
Huron – Not allowed.
Mitchell – Not allowed.
Pierre – Not allowed.
Sioux Falls – Six birds without license, no roosters.
Watertown – With permission from Animal Control Board.
Yankton – Six hens, not visible to public or neighbors, and no roosters.
To make an informed decision on the ordinance, a poll surveying Vermillion residents was conducted from Feb. 25 to March 13. Out of 569 votes, 261 votes were for the passage of the proposed ordinance and 302 were against it. Six votes were counted as “unsure.”
The poll, however, was inaccurate due to a glitch that allowed people to vote more than once, Prescott said.
“It became possible for people to vote more than once so we’re not going to say it was a scientific poll,” he said.
The faults with the poll didn’t bother Councilwoman Clarene Meins, who at Monday night’s council meeting said she wouldn’t support the ordinance.
“To me, even though the poll was unscientific, I think it speaks to what the public is really looking for so I’m going to vote no,” she said.
Councilman Parker Erickson agreed with Meins, and said he’d talked with multiple Vermillion residents who were against the ordinance.
“I don’t actually consider chickens as a pet, I consider them as a farm animal and they’re a lot of work to take care of,” he said.
Erickson added that he was concerned with the amount of time city workers would have to spend to make sure every resident would comply with the city ordinance.
“I feel like it’s more of a burden for our city ordinance people to work on that and look in on that and they could be doing other things so I’m going to suggest we vote this down,” he said.
Many of the council members who opposed the ordinance voiced concerns about the noise levels the fowls produce, the health issues they might present to city residents as well as their smell.
Councilwoman Kelsey Collier-Wise said while she doesn’t personally want to own chickens, she understands why some residents might want to raise the birds.
“I think the right and the ability of people to provide their own food is really important, and certainly we have to balance that impact in town and on neighbors, but the way this is set up I don’t see where this would have any more impact,” she said. “As this would probably have less impact than any other domesticated pet.”
During the course of the meeting, a host of ordinance supporters spoke about why they wanted the ordinance enacted. After the ordinance was tabled indefinitely, many expressed their disproval with the council’s decision.
Amber Margheim, who lives on Carr Street, said she wants to own chickens to gather and eat eggs. She said she suffers from a health problem and has severe allergies to some food. Raising her own food, she said, would make her feel more comfortable.
“It’s also a sustainability thing. When something happens I can go out and get eggs. We’ve had those snow days when I couldn’t get my van out because I couldn’t get it shoveled out, and well I can go out and get eggs in my backyard,” she said.
Christine Ahmed, the resident who originally requested the council look into a new ordinance, said she was disappointed with the council’s decision, but was hopeful that the issue might be brought up in the future by someone else.
“There’s no way to equate chicken manure to dog manure. Chicken manure you can sell, it’s like black gold to gardeners,” she said. “You can bundle it up and sell it to people in Vermillion. It’s the best manure for gardens that you can get, it’s the highest in nitrogen there is and that’s what’s kind of frustrating. They really didn’t have it accurate in the meeting.”
