10-25-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT 1 TO: Mayor Fischer and Members of the City Council FROM: Corrin Wendell, Community Development Director Laura Linehan, Community Relations Manager DATE: October 11, 2023 RE: Adopt Ordinance 881, amending City Code Chapter 1103.020 and enacting City Code Chapter 1103.030: the Raising of Chickens within the City ACTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED Adopt Ordinance 881, amending City Code Chapter 1103.020 and enacting City Code Chapter 1103.030: the Raising of Chickens within the City, and approve publication of a summary ordinance. Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Section 412.191, in the case of a lengthy ordinance, a summary may be published. BACKGROUND Since 2017, some residents have approached the City in regards to allowing chickens. Currently, the City does not allow for the raising of chickens. With the recent inquiries, City Staff began to research this topic again and gathered information from surrounding municipalities that have an approved ordinance. After researching six additional municipalities that allow the raising and keeping of chickens (New Brighton, Mounds View, Shoreview, Arden Hills, Roseville, and Maplewood), staff presented background information at the August and September Planning Commission meetings. The Planning Commission was presented with a sample ordinance and information from each of the surrounding municipalities at the August 10 and September 14 Planning Commission meetings. City staff also proposed a community survey related to various aspects of the ordinance to obtain further input from local residents. Following the staff presentation, several residents spoke in favor of allowing Little Canada residents to raise chickens on residential property and why they are in favor of this ordinance. Based on the feedback received at the Planning Commission meeting, a preliminary survey was published on August 11 to capture basic feedback on permitting residential chicken and/or fowl. The preliminary survey had a completion deadline of September 1, and staff utilized information from the preliminary survey to create a secondary survey that went into greater detail on several topics. The secondary survey was e-mailed to residents who completed the initial survey and had a completion deadline of September 8. The survey was marketed through several channels, including the City of Little Canada website, multiple posts on social media, and in the city e-newsletter. Overall survey participation results are outlined in Table 1 below.