Algonac Council discusses chicken issue

Presentation shares poultry info

By Barb Pert Templeton

The March 4 meeting of the Algonac City Council had officials hearing a presentation entitled: “Backyard Chickens: Are chickens a good fit for our community?” followed by their own discussion about allowing the feathered friends in the city.

The presentation, by Algonac City Manager Denice Gerstenberg, began with statistics from the American Pet Products Association. They noted that in 2018 5.8 million households had backyard chickens and in 2025 that number will soar to 11 million households with chickens. Today, chickens are the third most popular pet in the country.

Other topics included: Raising chickens is a commitment, do chickens lower property values, do chickens smell, are chickens noisy, what about roosters, what about neighbors, what are ordinance considerations and several other topics. The presentation in its entirety can be read in the meeting packet or viewed on the meeting video at cityofalgonc.org

Following the seven-minute presentation complete with slides, Gerstenberg offered to answer any questions the council might have about the topic, she also offered her own disclaimer on the subject.

“I myself have had chickens for over 10 years and I’m very familiar with chicken keeping and the responsibilities that come with it,” Gerstenberg said.

Councilman Michael Bembas asked the city manager if she knew where the state proposal about chickens was currently. (House Bill 4049 and 4050 – see item here)

She said it was just introduced on Feb. 13 so it’s brand new.

“My only opinion would be, we would be jumping the gun if we took it further without waiting to see what the state did because if we passed something and the state passes something totally different, we did a lot of running for no reason, in my humble opinion” Bembas said.

Councilman Jake Skarbek said his concern would be what happens if it slacks off in the house for six months? And if the city is going to wait do they put a cap on how long they would actually wait. Would it be six months or two months?

“But to go through a lot of work (to adopt an ordinance in Algonac) and then have to throw it all out wouldn’t make a lot of sense either,” Bembas said.

Fencing, coops or both?

Bembas then asked what the rules would be for someone on less than an acre who plans to have chickens, would they have to put up a privacy fence?

Gerstenberg said the ordinance can be crafted with whatever the council decides.

“I just know from personal experience there’s no way you’re going to keep chickens in with a four-foot chain link fence,” Gerstenberg said. “So, I would suggest that you have very strict coop requirements that would house X number of chickens and the coop would be built based on the number of chickens you intend to house, if you are going to free range chickens you would have to have a privacy fence unless you’re on an acreage parcel.”

Bembas said that was confusing, does it mean the chickens are kept in the coop all the time?

Gerstenberg said personally she lets her chickens out in the summer months and keeps them in her coop during the winter but she has acreage. Other chicken owners may keep theirs cooped up all the time, she added.

“Okay, well city boy doesn’t know,” Bembas said.

Mayor Pro Tem Dawn Davey said she’d rather see something on the books now in Algonac before the state decision because they don’t want to fall behind and then get hammered by people wanting them in six months because the state says it’s okay.

Skarbek said they could always follow what the state policy says but then add their own restrictions.

Bembas then noted that he has dogs and even with a privacy fence they would smell the chickens and bark “like maniacs”.

Councilmember Wendy Meldrum said she’s not opposing the chicken idea outright but she has lots of questions. She said she lives next to neighbors that have dogs and if one neighbor gets chickens all she’ll hear is dogs barking.

In addition, Meldrum said the city’s ordinance book would have to be expanded for chickens and that would put more work on the code enforcement officer.

Bembas, who’s the city’s postmaster, said they get lots of shipments of baby chicks and they make a lot of noise to the point where they are stored in the rear of the post office because it’s so loud.

“Do they stop making noise as they get older?” Bembas asked.

“Yes, they do stop making noise, when there little like that they chirp constantly the entire time and they’re very loud but when they are adults, they don’t make that much noise,” Gerstenberg said.

What about the neighbors?

Bembas continued his questions by asking what happens if some neighbors don’t want to be near chickens. Is the neighbor wishing to have chickens going to know which neighbor said no.

“What kind of strive would that commit in our community if a neighbor said no?” Bembas asked.

Gerstenberg said if the potential chicken owner had to have three neighbors sign off on it the city would not tell them which neighbor said no.

Bembas then asked what happens if someone buys the house next to the chickens and doesn’t want that, can they file a report against it with the city?

Skarbek, who’s a real estate agent, said the fact that the chickens are there would be something grandfathered in and the buyer would know about it.

“I don’t know if that would be fair to someone, that every time a neighbor moves you have a chance of losing your chickens?” Gerstenberg added.

What if the people raising the chickens aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing and when they come up for the two-year permit renewal the neighbor doesn’t want them there anymore, Bembas asked.

“The neighbor might say heck I thought they were going to do a good job and the chickens got in my back yard three times and other stuff, what will we do?” he asked

Davey said then it goes back to whatever the state is going to say.

Mayor Rocky Gillis said he didn’t want to table the topic to wait for the state because that can take a long time.

“At least if we’re going to say yes or no, I’d like to say yes or no,” Gillis said. “But I don’t think we have to make any decisions tonight.”

Gerstenberg said the city’s next step would be to have the city attorney draft an ordinance for the city council’s review.

Gillis said there would be several meetings before any ordinance was adopted so there would be plenty of time for public input.

During council comments at the end of the meeting Skarbek offered a final thought.

“With the chickens, I think it’s the right direction to look at it, obviously we’re not all going to agree on the whole situation, but I definitely think it’s worth looking at and checking on a time line,” he said.