CR-CLUC still looking for City Hall to back chickens in the backyard

CEDAR RAPIDS - Advocates for backyard chickens are still pecking away at the Cedar Rapids City Council.

But after months of working to make its case, Cedar Rapids Citizens for the Legalization of Urban Chickens - CR-CLUC - still has yet to convince a City Council majority to take an interest in the cause.

Rebecca Mumaw, of CR-CLUC, on Tuesday said she and three others once again would take to the microphone at the Tuesday evening council meeting to try to get some response from the council.

“We'd kind of like to know why (the council hasn't acted),” Mumaw said. “There's been no public outcry against it, and if there is a growing number of people that want it, then why not give it a try.”

She noted that the city of Palo is poised to allow backyard chickens, though the city of Iowa City has considered the issue and declined to act on it.

In recent days, Mayor Ron Corbett, who says he's open to a chicken trial, said no one on the nine-member council has taken on the issue and tried to convince the council to change the existing city ordinance, which prohibits chickens in residential neighborhoods.

Corbett on Tuesday said he wasn't sure a majority of the nine-member council liked the chicken idea, and some on the council are opposed to it, he added.

For her part, Mumaw thinks she might have four council votes – Corbett, Monica Vernon, Pat Shey and Kris Gulick.

The group proposes a trial which would allow 50 households to have up to six chickens in the yard. Just hens, not roosters, the group emphasizes.