First, a little history ...

Chicken keeping in New Brighton is on the chopping block (so to speak).

The keeping of chickens has always been allowed, without regulation, in our city. Now, it seems, the city leadership wants to change that. I'll try to make a very long story as short as possible.

Lots of folks have had backyard coops in New Brighton for many years - some for many, many years! But a couple of years ago, an ugly situation arose with a couple of neighbors in town: one household had chickens and the other did not, and the household that did not have chickens did not want their neighbors having them, either. And so they called the police to complain over and over (and over and over and over) again for complaints that started with their neighbor's chickens, but led to calling the police with complaints that their neighbors were looking at them strangely. This went on (and on and on and on) for a couple of years until the city finally got sick of it and decided to put together an Urban Farming Task Force, charged with the responsibility of studying the issue of keeping chickens (and also bees) in New Brighton. The task force, which included several who keep chickens in our city, met for well over a year. They came up with some common sense sorts of guidelines for consideration by the city council, which the council must have determined to be too lenient. So the city came up with some regulations of their own which were considerably more restrictive, but not completely unreasonable or unworkable and they scheduled a vote on them for May 12, following a public forum.

A week or two before the scheduled forum and vote, an anonymous flyer was circulated in the city by someone  wishing to do away with chicken keeping in New Brighton altogether. Most of the information in the flyer was at best misleading, and at worst, simply lies. This flyer was widely distributed to those in a certain demographic (older and wealthier) of our community. It amounted to nothing more than fear mongering. Those residents who have quietly and responsibly kept chickens in our city chose not to stoop to the low level of an anonymous rebuttal flyer. At the forum, over 40 residents spoke to the issue of chicken keeping in New Brighton, about half for it and about half against it. It is doubtful that many of those who spoke against live anywhere near a backyard coop and so did not speak about their own experience with backyard chickens, but rather, they simply recited the litany of false information presented on the anonymous flyer, which made them fearful.

Following the forum, the council was to vote on the heightened restrictions it had come up with, but at that moment the mayor abruptly moved to ban chickens in the city altogether, and the motion passed by a 3-2 vote. The vote won't become city law until language is drafted and voted upon, so those of us who were shocked and heartbroken and angry at the bait and switch which happened at the meeting still have a little time to try and prevent this from becoming official at the council's next meeting on May 26.

What can concerned citizens do? Contact our city council members!  Better yet, call them.