SUNDRE – Now going on more than three years, the matter of backyard hens remains on council’s radar.
But a final decision on whether to allow residents to raise a limited number of chickens likely will not be made until closer to the end of the year.
Coun. Owen Petersen told the Albertan on June 15 during a phone interview that there had not been much movement on the file since the last update in 2022, but added the issue has not been forgotten and that discussions remain ongoing.
“Administration and council has started to work on a community standards bylaw, which is a bylaw we don’t currently have,” Petersen said, adding many municipalities have in place such a document that “encompasses a whole swath” of bylaws regulating for example excessive noise as well as unsightly premises, and can also include animals like cats and dogs.
“We did speak about this at our spring workshop,” he said. “We’ve tasked administration to start the work on the community standards bylaw. So, you’re going to see that hopefully by the end of this calendar year; we’ll be talking (about) and bringing forth a community standards bylaw that will include chickens.”
Council’s last meeting before the summer break was on June 26, but administration will throughout the summer continue to work on drafting the bylaw, which by its nature can become quite big, he said.
“Olds has a really interesting community standards bylaw that encompasses dogs and cats and noises and curfews and all sorts of stuff,” he said. “In Olds’ case, chickens also fall under that. So, that’s the way we are moving forward right now. And then of course when the community standards bylaw is presented to council, then as council we can pick and choose and have that chicken conversation.”
The first-term councillor went onto express enthusiasm about the idea of adopting an overarching community standards bylaw as opposed to having a multitude of mix-mashed bylaws that individually address different issues. For simplicity’s sake and to avoid needlessly creating additional layers of burdensome bureaucracy for issues that should otherwise be fairly straightforward, “it would be really nice if we could keep it all under one roof,” he said.
Responding to a question about how long the process has taken to reach this point, during which time other municipalities in the region have found ways to accommodate backyard hens, Petersen empathized with the heavy workload imposed upon the municipality’s administrative staff.
“The longer I am a councillor, (the more) I am understanding how much work that administration and the town staff does,” he said, adding towns such as Olds and Innisfail have payroll rosters that double or triple Sundre’s.
And the municipality also has some major irons in the fire, he added.
“We have a lot of projects on the go in Sundre,” he said, citing as examples the Highway 27-Main Avenue corridor as well as the anticipated high-tech upgrade that will reportedly dramatically enhance the existing sewage lagoon’s facility capacity and the quality of effluent that is released back into the Red Deer River.
“We have all of these major projects and that is a lot for administration to do. As councillor, I’ve stayed on (the backyard hen bylaw) to keep pushing them to do this, but they have a lot of work to do,” he said, adding it’ll take a little while yet.
“It’s not going to move real quick.”
So although anyone who still wants a few hens in their backyard will have to continue exercising their patience a while yet, they can at least rest assured the issue remains on the radar for upcoming debate and decision.
“The main thing that will help this succeed, is people showing up to a council meeting or an open house when this bylaw is actually presented, and then speaking for this so that ultimately all of council votes in favour of it,” said Petersen.
“I’m sorry it’s not moving as quick as some folks would like, but we’re getting there. I’m actually really excited about the concept of a community standards bylaw,” he said, adding he’s gotten around to perusing the bylaws of some other municipalities of comparable or even larger size.
“There’s some really neat bylaws out there that really help people to be good neighbours, so I’m excited for Sundre to have one as well.”
