AURORA | Residents may be allowed to have backyard chickens as early as this summer. Aurora City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to an ordinance that would allow residents to own up to four hens, but no roosters.
“Aurora has been getting calls for years about hens,” said Cheryl Conway, a spokeswoman for the city’s animal care division, who cited the health benefits and sustainable ethic around raising backyard chickens.
Under the measure, residents would need a permit, and homeowners associations would be allowed to prohibit the backyard birds.
Conway said the biggest concern was that chickens generally lay eggs for their first three years, but can live for 7-10 years.
“They can’t just slaughter their own chicken and throw it in a pot,” she said of residents who might want to get rid of older chickens. “It’s illegal to slaughter animals in Aurora in residential neighborhoods.”
She said that in municipalities like Boulder, the hens were becoming a burden for local animal shelters.
“Boulder Valley Humane Society notes hens to them are the new throwaway pet. They liken them to the potbelly pig fad going on in 1990s,” she said.
She added it would be difficult to find space for the chickens in Aurora’s aging animal shelter.
“This just appears to be another attraction for predators, especially where there are areas like golf courses. We’re going to get more complaints,” said Councilman Bob Roth.
Conway said of the 17 Colorado municipalities allowing backyard chickens, all reported minimal problems.
More than 430 Aurora residents have signed an online petition to have chickens in Aurora, according to Councilwoman Sally Mounier who is a member of the advocacy group Chicks in Aurora.
Council also gave preliminary approval to a measure that would allow the city to annex land currently located in unincorporated Arapahoe County at the northbound exit at I-225 and Parker Road so that the city could enforce anti-panhandling laws.
The measure would be a unique use of city powers since the sole reason for the annexation would be to reduce panhandling. According to city documents, there are no statistics for how much panhandling occurs at the Parker Road median, but Aurora police say it’s a daily concern.
“If you take this action, we’re inheriting 50-60 traffic accidents a year,” said police Chief Dan Oates.
Roth, whose ward lies just east of the I-225 north exit ramp, said he has received dozens of calls and emails from concerned constituents.
Mayor Steve Hogan said he was concerned how the annexation would affect emergency response times in nearby neighborhoods like Heather Gardens. City documents said if the Aurora fire department were to become the sole provider of emergency services and fire protection for the off-ramp area, response times could take 15 to 20 minutes.
Aurora fire Chief Mike Garcia said the annexing would have no impact on the emergency aid agreement Aurora has with Denver Fire and South Metro Fire departments for the area.
“We’ve had this automatic aid agreement for years so it doesn’t change anything for us. Since there is a governmental change in who is responsible for that area, it really affects Police more than it does Fire,” he said.
According to city documents, the $8,600 application fee for annexation could be waved.
Later in the evening, the city council deferred a measure that would put a question to voters in November whether to make it harder for police officers to successfully appeal their discipline.
Under current rules for the city’s Civil Service Commission, when an officer is disciplined and appeals to the commission, the burden of proof is on the city to prove the discipline was appropriate.
The proposal calls for shifting that burden to the officer, forcing them to prove that the discipline was inappropriate.
The change is necessary, said City Attorney Charlie Richardson, because under the current rules disciplinary appeals last several days, and sometimes a full week.
Mark Finnin, president of the Aurora Police Association, said the two recent cases where a decision by police Chief Dan Oates to fire an officer were reversed by the commission, were rightfully upheld.
“Those decisions were not based on technicalities, but based on facts that did not support the discipline,” he said.
After various amendments were made to the measure on the floor, council agreed to defer the measure until March 24.
“I either need a crash course in law or a little bit more time to understand the ramification this is going to have,” said Councilwoman Molly Markert.
Chickens! Really! Like there’s not enough issues in Mayberry who, in the meantime, is trying to become a BIG City and County. Another step in the wrong direction.
I couldn’t agree more! We’ve spent all these years and all those tax dollars to become a city and now we are going to be farming in the backyards?
We don’t have enough code enforcement to keep up with the basics in neighborhoods. Sure, let’s throw in dirty chickens too!
Not everyone has to be for them, and most gardeners wouldn’t consider 4 chickens to be a “farm”. 4 chickens put out less waste daily than a small dog or cat, and they provide nutrition in the form of eggs. There are plenty of places that sell hens, and have a no rooster guarantee. Some breeds are clearly sexed at hatching as well. There are plenty of locations that will take roosters back if one gets mixed in the bunch, and the ordinance passed by Aurora also addresses people keeping roosters and fines for them . The waste can be composted (unlike dog or cat waste). They aren’t smelly in small flocks, and people who want clean food certainly keep the coops clean. Please educate yourself before making these statements…you will find most the concerns unfounded our downright untrue.
Well said, and let’s keep the education going! I have a large compost pile, which, when tended correctly, does not smell in the least. I also have a lot of Vermicompost– worms who make beautiful black compost for me, to enrich my garden, and the local wild bird poop goes in there too. The chicken waste will go there as well. And you can’t do that with dog poop or cat! Our reward? The veggies we get amongst our local neighbors, who have all agreed to go organic, is phenom! We have all been pesticide and herbicide free for 10 years+, yes, in Aurora! and we applaud this move in the right direction… back to healthy living, raising chickens for eggs, Homesteading and growing our own vegetables, recycling water, depending less on the grid and over-the-top costs of Whole Foods outfits raking in the profits… Let’s embrace being self- sustainable.
Considering most all our neighbors, including big city Denver, Centennial and Littleton all allow chickens, I don’t quite see how we can claim to be the All American city while not allowing them.
Yea..they will have people with binoculars watching you from a distance to make sure you don’t kill one of your chickens….see how ridiculous your leaders are?
I agree Chickens really! Is this just a warm a fuzzy way to get more votes in November! Hens only? When chicks are babies you can’t identify the boys from the girls! So what do you do with an unwanted rooster- You can’t eat it! I say let it go in the parks and have the foxes eat it!
I don’t know how you’re going to get chicks from eggs, without a rooster’s help …
A step in the right direction. Now get rid of the silly rule that doesn’t allow you to cook up that chicken when it outlasts its usefulness(eggs). (that gets rid of the Animal Shelter in the process, but then I’m sure there will be a “fee” for turning in old chickens. There’s always $$ behind everything in the USA now.) I can understand not slaughtering pigs or cows in the backyard…but a chicken, really? It’s time we are able to teach our children where their food comes from–and for it to be natural, not injected with who knows what, and then slaughtered in a factory with knee deep feces laden water. Just wondering though, if a chicken dies naturally in your yard, will we have to call the police to report? Are they going to keep tabs on the number (4) of chickens one can have? Will they make money off each chicken in the form of fees? Why can’t the chickens be taken to a homeless shelter to feed the hungry once they outlive their egg-laying days? If you take the non-laying chicken out to a friends farm on the Plains east of Aurora and slaughter it, will you get fined? Common Sense is no longer a virtue in America apparently-our Aurora City Council needs to try to find some.
The statute specifically says no slaughtering in residential areas. I think as long as you are not trying to sell the meat, going out to the farm might be an option? Chicks in Aurora plans on putting together a comprehensive listing of information on what to do with chickens if you can’t keep them as pets (who still provide manure for compost, and insect control). I would check ag zone laws for personal slaughter situations.
I know someone who has been raising chickens for eggs for years… and also has classes in… ‘humane slaughter’ for using the chickens. I’ll have to ask how that works, as they are in Denver. This whole process is new, so with it will come new regs and laws. It will evolve, like most new things, that were once old. We return to the old ways, via the future.
“They can’t just slaughter their own chicken and throw it in a pot,” she said
of residents who might want to get rid of older chickens. “It’s illegal
to slaughter animals in Aurora in residential neighborhoods.”
Let’s see… which is logically simpler… to complicate or stop this ordinance because animal control has no room for abandoned chickens (NO)… build more animal shelter space (expen$ive — NO)… take abandoned chickens to a chicken farm (duh, that would make too much sense)… or just change the stupid law to law people to eat their chickens (double duh, again makes way too much sense)?
Chickens at last! Denver has them, Littleton just approved… this is a great boon to the resurgent interest in Homesteading and Urban Gardening. There are some very clever chicken houses, and they are as clean as people keep them. Just like your neighbors cleaning up their dog poop, if you have neighbors are responsible enough to be interested, odds are they are also interested in doing it right.