City council considers allowing backyard chickens

While budgets and cutbacks have been at the top of the pecking order at City Hall, chickens were debated Wednesday.

Coun. Joe Mihevc led the charge for changes to existing bylaws to allow residents to keep chickens in their backyards.

Council agreed Wednesday to ask city staff to draft some guidelines about how people could keep backyard hens in a “safe and appropriate manner.” Those recommendations would then go before the licensing and standards committee in February.

“There are a number of residents who wish to keep hens in their backyards for the purposes of producing eggs for personal consumption but existing by-laws prohibit the keeping of chickens in Toronto,” Mihevc’s motion stated.

“Backyard hens can be kept in a safe and appropriate manner that limits the potential for nuisances and public health concerns and City Council should give consideration to allowing residents to legally keep hens.”

Kingston, Ont., Vancouver, New York, Cleveland and Los Angeles have made similar moves.

“The experiences of these cities have highlighted that residents can successfully keep a limited number of hens in their backyard in balance with the need to maintain the community’s quality of life by establishing appropriate regulations that govern potential issues such as noise, odour, separation distances, selling of eggs, and waste disposal,” the motion stated.

Click here to read Mihevc’s motion.

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