ANSONIA — A public hearing on Monday (June 26) on a proposal to allow residents to keep hens in their backyards drew a mixed, yet limited, reaction from the public.
About 20 people attended the virtual hearing held by the Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission. Three spoke in favor of keeping hens while one woman spoke against it. Two speakers landed somewhere in the middle.
At the end of the hearing, which lasted about 25 minutes, the commission opted to continue the hearing until its next meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. July 31.
“We want to take the comments we heard tonight back to our planner and our staff to discuss, and make any necessary changes to what’s been proposed,” said commission chairman Jared Heon.
Heon said the public will have another chance to weigh in on the proposal at next month’s continued hearing and can also submit comments to City Hall.
Currently, Ansonia’s regulations don’t allow chickens in residential areas, and essentially only allow them on farmland.
One resident, who lives in the city’s hilltop section, did not want to publicly share her full name for fear of any retaliation. She said her neighbor has chickens, and it’s making her life miserable.
“I don’t want my neighbor to know I’m here (on the Zoom meeting), but she has four chickens and they stink,” the resident said. “I had a barbecue in my yard recently and because of the smell we had to move a volleyball net. The smell came through at the party. I can’t even enjoy my yard. I apologize to anyone who likes the idea of having chickens. Ansonia used to be a farm city years ago, but it’s not anymore. We don’t have the acreage for it. It smells, it’s disgusting.”
The resident told the commission she knows of quite a few people in the hilltop section who have hens and roosters, but she hasn’t lodged any formal complaints.
“I have to live here, and we’re in close quarters, and I don’t want to start problems with the neighbors,” she said.
The Ansonia Land Use Administrator Ronda Porrini told The Valley Indy in a podcast Monday (June 26) that the city receives complaints from residents about people keeping hens and roosters, but most times the owners take steps to address the problem.
Raising chickens for eggs has become more commonplace since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the inflation wave.
Resident Bart Flaherty, who is a former PZC chairman, said he raised chickens when he was a kid, but had to get rid of them because his mother could no longer stand the smell.
“I had about a dozen Rhode Island Reds, but my mother finally put the kibosh on it because she couldn’t stand the smell,” Flaherty said. “And we had quite a bit of acres. When you clean the coop and spread (the chicken manure) on your garden it really starts to get smelly. In a wide open area, it’s fine. But in Ansonia, we’re 20,000 people in 26 square miles, and we’re pretty densely populated. You have chickens now, and it’s not enforced. If you put this in place, I don’t know how you will enforce it. I caution you to be very cautious.”
Three residents spoke in favor of the proposal, including mother and daughter Kristen and Amber Sapiente, who raised chickens when they lived in the mid-West and would like the opportunity to do so here.
“We always had chickens at our house and my grandchildren took a great interest in them,” said Kristen Sapiente. “They had something to take care of, kept them clean and it gave them some responsibility, plus the chickens never smelled. It’s a great opportunity for children.”
Amber Sapiente recalled growing up with chickens as a fond part of her childhood.
“It was a huge learning experience for me,” she said. “It’s something for kids to do and gives them responsibilities. We’re coming up on struggles where people can’t even afford to buy eggs. I agree that this should not interfere with neighbor’s boundary lines, and I know it’s important to keep chickens in their coops, to keep the coops clean, not only for your neighbors’ sake but for the chickens’ sake, too.”
Another resident said she has an issue with ticks in her yard and her dog has gotten various tick-borne diseases as a result. She said chickens are known to eat ticks and urged the city to let residents keep hens on their properties.
Under a proposed draft of new rules:
*residents with at least one-third an acre would be allowed to keep no more than six hens
*a fenced enclosure, no more than 200 square feet, placed in a rear yard is required and must be at least 25 feet from any street line, at least 15 feet from any residential dwelling and at least five feet from any property line
*no part of the enclosure can be visible from the street
*no structure for keeping hens can exceed 12 feet in height
*no roosters are allowed
Heon said language would also need to be added to the draft for the storing of chicken manure, which people often use as a garden fertilizer.
