Aurora bucked a growing trend recently when city officials decided against allowing residents to keep backyard chickens.
While we share many of the concerns that Aurora officials voiced in shooting down the proposal, there are ways of keeping chickens that are compatible with city living.
A rooster ban, which Commerce City has enacted, is a good start. Raucous crowing, especially at the crack of dawn, is too much for even the most tolerant to bear.
And Boulder requires chicken owners to follow other pet rules regarding noise, smell and proper care. That seems a common-sense approach as well.
As more Coloradans express interest in this trend, it is incumbent on cities to ensure sensible safeguards for residents who aren’t fond of living near fowl. It’s also the responsibility of cash-strapped cities to just say no if they can’t afford the enforcement that must go along with this.
The idea of raising backyard chickens has grown in popularity and is intertwined with the “locavore” movement in which people seek out locally grown and produced foods.
Keeping hens is a way to ensure the eggs you’re feeding your family are natural, and come from hens that are fed additive-free food. It’s also a connection to our vanishing agrarian heritage.
The question of backyard chickens in Aurora was raised by several residents interested in keeping them. According to an Aurora Sentinel story, Aurora city staffers were quick to raise concerns about keeping chickens in urban areas.
Those concerns included noise, inability to keep hens contained, chicken droppings, and the potential of attracting coyotes and other predators.
“It just would not make sense, it wouldn’t fit in Aurora,” Councilman Bob Broom said, according to the Sentinel story. “It’s not compatible.”
That sounds like a pretty entrenched position, but perhaps, if enough residents are interested, Aurora might reconsider and try a pilot program. In Longmont, city officials decided to issue 50 permits as part of a trial run to see whether urban hens will work there.
There has been so much interest in Denver recently, and something of a backlash against what critics say is a cumbersome permitting process, that city officials are considering streamlining the process by which residents apply for a permit to keep chickens.
Each Front Range city is different in its sensibilities, and it’s clear there is no one-size-fits-all policy when it comes to keeping chickens in populated areas.
But given a chance and proper code enforcement, urban residents might find that a well-kept coop of hens make better neighbors than they thought. And once residents find out how much work is required to tend to chickens, the trend may fade soon enough.
