Iowa City chicken advocates need council backing

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - A pair of public forums to discuss urban chickens is in the works, but those who are pushing to raise the birds within city limits will have to change the mind of at least one Iowa City Council member to revive the issue at city hall.

Just two of seven city council members expressed support for the idea last month. At least three will be needed for the city to re-address the chicken debate, which has been viewed by some as a venture in sustainable living, others as a waste of city time and others still as the punch line to jokes about the eccentricity of Iowa City.

New Pioneer Food Co-op will host two free public forums to discuss the pros and cons of raising chickens in an urban setting from 6 to 7:30 p.m. March 2 and 11 at its Coralville store.

The council was slated to take up the issue again in the spring after initial discussions last year. But a council with two new members, who are both against allowing urban chickens, opted at a meeting in January to remove the topic from its coming work session agendas, essentially squashing the idea.

The council has a longstanding policy that if three of the seven council members have an interest in an issue, it will add the item to its pending work session agenda, Mayor Matt Hayek said.

As it stands, only two members of the council, Ross Wilburn and Mike Wright, have voiced support of continuing the chicken discussion. Connie Champion had formerly been open to the idea but said at the January meeting she had changed her mind.

Several council members said that they did not want to exhaust further city hours on the issue.

"We looked at this issue a year ago, and staff put a fair amount of time into studying it and came back with mixed feelings," said Hayek, referring to a recommendation from Housing and Inspection Services to not allow chickens and another from Animal Services to permit them in small numbers.

"At this point, for the city to pursue the issue further would require quite a bit of additional work for both staff and commissions that would be potentially involved," he said.

Stacey Driscoll of IC Friends of Urban Chickens, who is scheduled to help lead the March 11 forum, said her group plans to keep fighting.

"We kind of felt like that was an unfair decision," Driscoll said. "I understand it's not a high priority for them, and who am I to say what their priorities should be, but we think it's unfair to take it off the agenda entirely."

Driscoll said the forums will be a step in educating people about the benefits and dispelling the urban myths of urban chickens.

"That's kind of the start, and I know there are still a lot of people who support chickens in Iowa City and Coralville and the area," she said. "We're not giving up. Sometimes you have to work a little harder to get things changed."