LOWELL -- Residents are no closer to being allowed ownership of chickens or bees within the city.
The Planning Commission held public hearings to address a future location of a mobile vendor park and creating an ordinance allowing for urban agriculture, in which residents could have chickens and beehives in their backyards as long as the animal structures were 25 feet from surrounding properties.
Commission action
Lowell Planning Commission met Thursday and approved:
• An amendment to development of a FedEx Ground guard shack at 400 N. Goad Springs Road. The facility is almost finished, but its project engineer and city engineers have had disagreements about the costs of road improvement surrounding the facility. This week the parties reached an agreement.
• A preliminary plat for Timber Ridge Subdivision.
Source: Staff Report
Commissioners denied urban agriculture because the proposal had vague language that didn't guarantee best practices for disease prevention would be followed. The issue appeared before the Ordinance Committee four times and before the Planning Commission once before.
Michael Phillips, who presented the request, said previous meetings provided good feedback and led him to speak with area veterinarians and representatives with the University of Arkansas Extension Office, Arkansas Poultry and Livestock Commission and the Arkansas State Plant Board to improve the proposal.
"We're open to any other suggestions you might have," Phillips said. "We believe this is the right direction for city to go in. This is not something outrageous to ask."
Anthony and Abigail Powell spoke in favor of the issue during the public hearing and requested they be allowed to keep Jacob sheep on their property, a rare breed of small sheep that can have two to six horns. The sheep are valued for the fleece it produces, which contains small amounts of lanolin cutting down on odor and makes material popular with weavers and hand spinners.
"We've had a farmhouse and buildings, chicken coop ... set up for farm use, the property south has farm buildings and the property on north have cattle," Anthony Powell said. "The sheep are not going to bother anybody and we have the facilities for it."
Another man spoke against the issue, saying the city wouldn't have the proper means to enforce the ordinance as it's written, which would lead to greater liability and the chance for diseases to spread.
Commissioner James Milner and Chairman Mitch Wright agreed.
The required distance of a chicken coop or beehive from another property begged the question of greater clarity for lot sizes that could support such developments. "It becomes a city management effort," Milner said. "If you don't have a place for it to go, those become real issues and I'm not sure how we would enforce those by code."
"This is highly inadequate, the language too vague for any real enforcement," Wright said. His opposition wasn't to caring for animals, but the way the proposed ordinance was written. "I can't in good conscience support something like this that's inadequate. There are so many things wrong and things to address. Sanitation and disease are at the top of the list."
Wright worried about residents who might acquire animals, not care for them properly and necessitate visits from the state veterinarian, which would then create more work for the city.
"It would be an extraordinary burden to put on a city to regulate that," Wright said.
Commissioner Darrin Brock suggested separating the issue into two ordinances, since he saw greater benefits for beekeeping in the city.
The commission voted unanimously against the proposed ordinance.
NW News on 02/24/2017