OLDS — The Town of Olds is looking at revising a couple of bylaws to cover the raising of a wide variety of animals in the community – everything from chickens to ostriches.
Even rats came up as a possibility. However, several councillors made it clear they don’t want them in the community.
A reference was also made to cats, but councillors said they don’t want to reopen that controversy again, saying it was dealt with several years ago.
Plans are in the works to conduct a survey asking a list of questions online, by phone and via printed questionnaires from Aug. 5 to Sept. 15.
The plan is to then analyze the resulting data during the last couple of weeks of September and provide a report to council’s Oct. 5 policies and priorities meeting.
Recommendations will be presented to council and decisions made by council will be communicated to the public.
Council got an initial look at the survey during its July 6 meeting. It came back for further discussion during the July 13 meeting so that staff can get the survey set up for that Aug. 5 start date.
The cost of the survey, including the phone survey to be conducted by a company, is projected to be about $2,500, and will be covered in the existing budget.
Community facilitator Jennifer Lutz told council the intention had been to undertake this consultation earlier, but that town staff were sidetracked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are seeing an increase in urban farming, combined with continued growth of our community,” she said.
“And the current rules are very ambiguous. So from some people thinking there are no bylaws to discretionary use.”
She said about twice a week, staff get complaints about various animals in town. Hence the reason for the survey and the plan to revise the bylaws.
Animals are governed under the town’s community standards bylaw and the land use bylaw.
One of the more contentious issues was how many chickens residents would be allowed to raise in town.
The draft survey asked residents whether they’re OK with anywhere from one to six or 21 to 50 chickens.
Councillors Mary Jane Harper and Mary Anne Overwater balked at that 21-50 category.
“That’s a farm operation,” Overwater said. Harper agreed.
“Having had a mother-in-law who raised chickens and sold eggs, when you get 15 to 20 chickens, you’re in a big business. And it should be on a farm, not in a residential backyard,” Harper said.
“I would be comfortable with three and under, four to six, six to 10, that kind of numbers. I don’t think the town of Olds residents want to have up to 20 chickens in their neighbour’s back yard.”
Community services director Doug Wagstaff understood that decision, but recommended keeping that 21-50 option in there to find out the community’s thoughts on having that many chickens on one property in town.
Coun. Heather Ryan agreed with that idea.
The draft survey included a lengthy list of animals that could be prohibited, including birds of prey, reptiles – and rats.
“What I’m saying is why do we even have rats on there? It’s a prohibited animal in Alberta. Why would we even have that? The last thing we want is rats getting out to the compost area out at the college,” Overwater said.
She also said the survey should also point out that raising of animals is a big responsibility – they do get larger, and, especially if they’re exotic, homeowners should be at least encouraged to take courses on how to look after them.
Coun. Wanda Blatz expressed concern that foxes or coyotes – and cats – could be attracted to chickens. She suggested Fish and Wildlife or some other entity should enforce rules to prevent that from happening.
Ryan expressed concern that if there are more animals to monitor, especially exotic ones, that could increase the town’s municipal enforcement costs. She said residents should be made aware of that.
Presentation of the survey and questions from councillors took up about 68 minutes.
In the end, council voted to accept the presentation as information.
“Members of council and administration, we’ve had a flood of questions and we’ve spoken to every animal on the ark,” said deputy mayor Mitch Thomson who chaired the meeting. “It’s been a great conversation.”
