STUART — Stuart residents will have an opportunity to weigh in on whether backyard chickens should be allowed in the city as officials consider a proposed ordinance.
The city is sending residents a survey to gauge public interest. The questionnaire asks whether residents support allowing up to four hens per household and whether they would consider keeping chickens themselves, among other questions.
City Commissioner Merritt Matheson said the survey could provide officials with information they currently lack.
"I feel like we have almost no data on chickens besides our own individual conversations or door knocking and you know for me knowing that there are people here in the city currently with chickens and there are also people that adamantly oppose it," he said. "There's a big difference whether it's a thousand people sign up and say yeah I'd get chickens right away or 20."
The survey will be distributed through residents' utility bills and posted on the city's website. Commissioner Sean Reed said he wants respondents to provide information that would allow city staff to verify they live in Stuart.
"I just think it should be a requirement to like I said list a property address or utility bill account number just so it can be verified by staff and like I said hopefully people are just honest in their surveys but it's kind of hard for us to just police everything," he said.
That data will also be used to gauge the interest of qualifying neighborhoods around Stuart.
The questionnaire asks residents about potential screening and height requirements for chicken coops and pens, as well as conditions or concerns the city should address, including setbacks, cleanliness, pest control, enforcement, noise and permits.
Commissioner Campbell Rich said he wants residents to have a way to express concerns about the proposal.
"These are not vaccinated animals they can be disease vectors. I certainly would like to see the question should neighboring property owners have an opportunity to object or to provide comments before a chicken permit is approved," he said.
Reed said he worries adding too many questions could discourage people from responding.
"Some people that have 10 to 20 question surveys they don't even bother. You're going to get people that strongly support it or strongly oppose it for their own reasons," he said.
The commission agreed to keep the questionnaire relatively simple while including a question about a potential pilot program.
"I support the pilot program by the way, from a city perspective, because then that would kind of limit the naysayers of saying 'hey this is going to happen this is going to happen,'" Reed said. "If it's a pilot program you get to address all of those concerns one year after this is adopted, whether or not you want to move forward, move forward with conditions, or just not even have the program at all."
The city is expected to consider issues such as code enforcement after receiving the survey responses. Matheson said officials should establish a system for identifying properties with chickens before issuing permits.
"If we approve anything they need to be noticed properties with some sort of an inspection. I know you can use photos for permitting inspections but there needs to be a notice of whose property has chickens. Just like my dog is licensed as Commissioner Rich said. People can always choose to be not in compliance but there has to be a system in place," he said.
Under the proposed ordinance, residents of homesteaded single-family homes would be allowed to keep up to four hens with an annual permit. The survey identifies an annual permit fee and inspections as part of the proposal.
Roosters would not be allowed, and chickens would have to remain within a coop or pen on the property. The proposed rules also would prohibit breeding or slaughtering chickens on the property.
The proposed ordinance includes requirements for screening, setbacks and pest prevention. Coops and pens would have to be screened from adjacent roads and neighboring properties by a six-foot opaque fence or wall and would need to be at least 5 feet from side and rear lot lines, 20 feet from any side street and 25 feet from residential structures on adjoining lots.
The enclosures also would have to be maintained to prevent rodents and other pests and cleaned regularly to prevent odors.