City weighs legal void on chickens

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: Two years ago, Providence legalized small, backyard chicken flocks. Since then, chicken enthusiasts in other communities have fought for the same, though Cranston Mayor Allan Fung recently vetoed a similar ordinance. Above, Cranston resident Wright Deter with some of the nine chickens he keeps on his property. / PBN PHOTO/STEPHANIE EWENS
BIRDS OF A FEATHER: Two years ago, Providence legalized small, backyard chicken flocks. Since then, chicken enthusiasts in other communities have fought for the same, though Cranston Mayor Allan Fung recently vetoed a similar ordinance. Above, Cranston resident Wright Deter with some of the nine chickens he keeps on his property. / PBN PHOTO/STEPHANIE EWENS

Urban chicken-keeping in Rhode Island appeared to cross from the fringe into the mainstream two years ago when Providence legalized small, backyard flocks, followed by Warren and exclusive Barrington last year.
So, it wasn’t a surprise when Cranston chicken enthusiasts became the latest to tap into a trend that has been gaining cultural cache nationally. They proposed a similar ordinance this year that was approved by the City Council.
But a backlash emerged from residents concerned about rats and the thought of farm animals in their neighborhoods. In response, Mayor Allan Fung vetoed the ordinance, raising questions about the merits and risks of chicken legalization in other Rhode Island cities and suburbs.
Opponents’ main concern, echoed by Fung: how a city with a rat problem so serious it had recently limited the use of bird feeders could encourage chickens.
“While there has not been any research which can definitively link the ownership of chickens to a greater risk of rats or other rodents, there is always a concern with ownership of any animals,” Fung said in the message accompanying his veto, which, after narrow council passage, effectively killed the ordinance.
Adding to the rat issue, Fung cited a concern about the cost of enforcing the ordinance and, more controversially, that backyard chickens could drive down property values where “people may not want to purchase a property where there are chickens being raised next door.”
But among several large Rhode Island cities and towns where chickens are legal, finding officials who share Fung’s concerns is difficult.
In Providence, David Ortiz, spokesman for Mayor Angel Taveras, said neither neighbors nor city officials have reported any rat concerns connected with a backyard coop.
Although he said there have been scattered neighbor complaints about noise from backyard flocks in the last two years, Ortiz said the chicken ordinance is not a city concern right now.
In Barrington, Town Manager Peter DeAngelis Jr. said rats have not been a problem in town recently and no complaints have reached his desk about chickens.
DeAngelis said the town has issued about a dozen chicken-coop permits, and the only challenge has been informing some people who already keep the birds that they need to be inspected. In Cranston, the bid for a chicken ordinance arrived at an inopportune time, when the city has been frustrated by a rapid increase in its rat population.
So far this year, the city has received 650 calls from residents for help with rats compared with 350 in 2011, according to Director of Public Works Kenneth Mason.
In response, the city has spent $95,000 contracting with exterminators Griggs & Brown Co. Inc. and Big Blue Bug Solutions to kill the rodents, up from $57,000 last year.
Carlos Lopez, spokesman for Fung, said the city attributes the infestation to the unusually warm temperatures last winter providing a favorable environment for rat breeding.
State officials, who support backyard flocks as part of a larger farming initiative, say while improper chicken-keeping “could” in theory add to a rodent problem, there has been no evidence to suggest it has been a factor or is likely to be.
“As the ordinance was written, I don’t think it carried a strong risk of rats,” said R.I. State Veterinarian Scott Marshall. “I understand [Fung’s] position, but I think the reality is he is being overcautious.”
Marshall said as far as rats are concerned, chickens aren’t that different from dogs, and problems only arise when an owner leaves food outside and doesn’t clean up after their animals.
Calculating the real estate impact of urban and suburban chickens, if there is one, is even more difficult.
The fact that chickens are legal in many of the state’s hottest property markets would seem to point to flocks now being considered desirable by potential buyers.
Others feel that it’s in less-desirable areas that sellers have to worry about turning off those made queasy by farm animals.
“I don’t think it would keep property values down, but I am a farm girl and live in Rehoboth,” said Rhode Island Association of Realtors President Victoria Doran, an agent with Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Barrington. “Most people think of them as a novelty in a city environment and not problematic. Providence has them and they don’t seem to be a problem.” Bruce D. Lane, an agent with Williams and Stuart Real Estate in Cranston, and a former chicken owner, has never had a buyer ignore a house because of nearby chickens. But he said in the current market, you want to eliminate any factor that could turn people off.
Cranston’s vetoed chicken ordinance was similar to the one passed by Providence, allowing one hen per 800 square feet of lot area and no roosters. Home slaughtering is illegal.
Cranston would have allowed a maximum of 10 hens while Providence caps it at six. Both ordinances established strict rules for the construction of coops, fences and feed-storage bins. Cranston was going to charge a $25 inspection fee.
One major difference between the circumstances in the two cities is that in Providence, keeping chickens was outlawed before the ordinance, whereas in Cranston there is a legal void.
Chicken owners say the current situation forces them to keep their flocks furtively, under an unwritten acknowledgement that the city won’t pay any attention until a neighbor complains.
Kate Sayles, agriculture and forestry technician at the Northern Rhode Island Conservation District, is conducting a state chicken survey, but her counts generally only include farms, because backyard chickens are kept secret.
“The hope with ordinances is that people will keep them out in the open, which is better for the chickens,” Sayles said.
For Cranston residents who already have chickens, the veto keeps an uncomfortable status quo.
“I am not giving up my flock,” said ordinance supporter Drake Patten. “There is nothing to say you can’t keep them, this was just an effort to make sure people keep them in a responsible way.”
Patten, executive director of the Steel Yard in Providence, sees enough momentum and business potential in urban agriculture that she plans to leave her job to start a farm-supply store on the capital city’s west side.
Western Cranston resident Kimberly Morin, the leader of the ordinance movement, doesn’t currently have chickens, but wants them.
“I don’t know what I will do now – I’m still on the fence,” Morin said about whether to get a flock. •

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