Tulsa city councilors are still mulling over updates to regulations on backyard chickens.
In their latest round of proposed changes discussed last week, the minimum distance for a chicken coop to be from a residence is cut from 40 feet to 35. A significant portion of the city is zoned residential with lots a minimum of 60 feet wide.
District 4 Councilor Kara Joy McKee said fresh eggs can make a big difference in some Tulsans’ diets.
"And if we’re at 35 feet, that eliminates a lot of people from being allowed to have chickens, but a 25-foot limit, I think, could really — it’ll be safe, it’ll be clean and it will be inclusive," McKee said.
District 7 Councilor Lori Decter Wright said cutting the minimum distance even more isn’t a good idea.
"In our cul-de-sac neighborhoods especially, 25 feet in a cul-de-sac, every backyard could have a chicken coop. That’s not going to be clean or safe," Decter Wright said.
District 5 Councilor Mykey Arthrell-Knezek said less than 35 feet didn’t fly with Animal Welfare Commission Chair and former Mayor Susan Savage.
"When I proposed a 30-foot, Mayor Savage said no way. She was, like, '35 minimum,'" Knezek said.
Arthrell-Knezek has also proposed allowing people to have up to 10 adult birds and doing away with a ban on roosters older than eight weeks, but some councilors would like to refine that. District 3 Councilor Crista Patrick said she wants to see a limit of one rooster per flock of hens.
"Only to avoid in my neck of the woods, we have less-than-honorable people that like to engage in cockfighting, and I do not want them to legally be able to say, 'I’m allowed to have 10 roosters at a time,'" Patrick said.
Patrick’s district primarily covers northeast Tulsa. District 8 Councilor Phil Lakin said his constituents have an entirely different perspective.
"For some reason, people in my area — maybe because we’re just more urban down in south Tulsa, there’s not very much open space — they’re not very keen on — the ones at least who have responded to me so far, I’ll get a completely different reaction probably as I say this — are just not keen on allowing any roosters whatsoever," Lakin said.
Arthrell-Knezek previously suggested collaring roosters as a way to keep them from crowing, but his current proposal would add crowing to the list of animal behaviors considered nuisances. It falls on the city’s Working In Neighborhoods Department to enforce nuisance provisions, however, something not all councilors are on board with.
Councilors are supposed to finalize changes to the city's animal welfare ordinances later this month.
The image in this story, "Backyard chicken coop with green roof" by Josh Larios is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
