Expect a good City Council debate before urban chickens arrive in Cedar Rapids backyards

CEDAR RAPIDS - The chicken people in yellow T-shirts were back in front of the City Council this week stating their case for a citywide experiment that would allow up to six hens in backyards for a year.

Cedar Rapids Citizens for the Legalization of Urban Chickens - CLUC - had appeared in front of the City Council back in November.

Mayor Ron Corbett this week credited the CLUC group with waiting a couple of months before making their case again to the new City Council, a move that he said allowed the council to address top priorities like flood victims and the city budget.

Corbett said a request for a trial that would allow chickens in, say, 40 backyards for a year didn't seem like an “unreasonable” idea, but at the same time he wasn't sure a majority of the City Council favored the idea.

Council member Monica Vernon this week said she didn't see why the CLUC plan couldn't get council approval in the near future.

“I don't think it needs that much study if the neighbors are all in agreement to allow a test,” she said.

Corbett said at least a few on the council are opposed to the idea, though he thought council member Tom Podzimek was one in favor of it.

However, Podzimek this week called the issue of allowing chickens in backyards a “complex” one. He said the density of a neighborhood and the size of a backyard all would need to be factored into any experiment.

He noted that the city of Iowa City set the issue aside.

Sure, Podzimek said, the council has heard from the 50 or so people who want chickens, but “wait until you hear from the thousands who don't,” he said.

“I moved into an urban area for a reason. I didn't expect to live on a farm,” he said the sentiment from some will be.

For now, Podzimek thought the City Council had more important matters to address and might not have the “hours” needed to draft “a good policy.”

Council member Don Karr said this week that the city long has had its hands full trying to handle dogs and cats that have irresponsible owners.

“Do we need another animal in the city that people aren't going to take care of and are going to cause problems for neighbors?” Karr asked.

He also wondered if chickens would bring more raccoons and other wild animals into backyards.

CLUC's mission statement is this: “We feel that it is everyone's right to have access to healthy and wholesome food. Keeping a few hens is a healthful way of gardening food for our families in our own backyards.”

In a handout at this week's council meeting, CLUC stated that 58 families are part of the group.

Rebecca Mumaw, co-founder of the Cedar Rapids group, suggested to the City Council a one-year trial for 50 to 75 households. The trial would include hens, not roosters, she noted.