Zoning change may allow animals on 1-acre lots

Homeowners in rural Linn County subdivisions where one-acre lots are commonplace will be permitted to have one horse, elk or steer, three hogs, goats or sheep and a dozen chickens or rabbits under a proposal being considered by the Linn County supervisors.

The proposed amendment to Linn County's Unified Development Code is intended to set standards in the care of animals that in some instances already are being raised in rural subdivisions in the county, Dan Swartzendruber, Linn County's planning and zoning manager, said on Tuesday.

'Certainly there are people out there who have gone ahead and put up a chicken coop in their backyard and haven't bothered to contact us,” Swartzendruber said.

The desire of more people in rural subdivisions to raise chickens - a practice that is permitted, for example, in Cedar Rapids and Marion - is driving the county's new animal proposal, he said.

The proposal will allow the county to adopt regulations to address property line setbacks from neighbors, odors and the management of manure, he said, and to make one thing clear with chickens - no roosters.

Swartzendruber said the county's Planning and Development Department decided it made sense to address animals of large, intermediate and small size as it worked on regulations for the chicken, which is considered a small animal.

Under the county proposal, large animals include horses, cattle, elk, llamas and deer. Intermediate animals include hogs, sheep, goats, geese and turkeys.

And small animals include chickens, rabbits and chinchillas.

Those with one-acre lots can have one large animal, three intermediate ones and 12 small ones. Those with lots smaller than an acre also can have 12 small animals.

Those with larger than one-acre lots can have one large animal per acre; three intermediate animals per acre except for hogs; and 12 small animals per acre.

The Linn County Board of Supervisors will discuss the new Linn County animal proposal at its meeting next Monday morning.

Linn County Supervisor John Harris, whose district sits outside of the metropolitan Cedar Rapids area, said on Tuesday that the animal proposal for rural subdivisions sets standards for what already is allowed now because of an absence of regulation.

'We're not allowing anything that we disallow now,” Harris said. 'This ordinance is not going to cause people to run off and buy a cow or pig if they haven't done it already.”

At the same time, he said he wasn't sure he knew of any Linn County subdivisions of one-acre lots with hogs or an elk in the backyard.

Supervisor Brent Oleson on Tuesday said he supports the concept of residents being able to raise and grow local food. He said, too, that residents living in rural subdivisions with larger lots than in the city have a 'different expectation” than people living in Cedar Rapids and Marion.

The proposed code amendment states that the standards are designed for non-commercial livestock primarily intended for personal use and consumption.

The standards require a covered enclosure; fencing; an enclosed, fly-proof container for manure and sealed container if manure is used to make compost.

Swartzendruber said the Linn County Food Systems Council has helped the Planning and Development Department write the new standards, and the department also has looked at ordinances in other jurisdictions. The Linn County proposal is more restrictive than some other jurisdictions' standards, he said.

Johnson County permits residents on rural lots to keep poultry, pigeons and rabbits, but requires a rural resident to have a lot of at least two acres in size to keep animals such as horses, cattle, sheep and goats, according to Rick Dvorak, administrator at the Johnson County Planning and Zoning/Building Division.