Orange Park council debates chicken ordinance

Mayor Randy Anderson said he brought the issue to the council because he was riding his bicycle through town, noticed many chickens in backyards, and realized the town prohibited chickens as household pets. Anderson added that with a current limit of four pets per household if the council voted to allow chickens, that limit would have to be increased.

Vice mayor Alan Watt said he did not mind townspeople owning chickens as long as the birds and their coops were adequately maintained. Council member John Hauber said he supported allowing hens as pets, not roosters. Doug Benefield said he worried that allowing chickens and increasing the household limits for pets would essentially allow farming within the town.

Two citizens spoke against the proposal. Plainfield Avenue resident Joe Pemberton said his wife kept five chickens in their backyard. A fox took one, and he said the family chicken operation was not worth the trouble nor the expense.  Citizen Frank Rickets said he also opposed allowing the barnyard fouls in the town. “This is not a good idea,” he said. “In my neighborhood where there are only 25-foot backyards…you don’t want to be on the other side of that fence if you are only 25 feet from somebody’s chicken coop.”

Town Attorney Sam Garrison told the council that the 2017 council debated the same issue, and he offered to send council members a copy of the outcome of that debate. Anderson tabled the matter until he and his colleagues could review Garrison’s documentation.

Town Manager Sarah Campbell said the outcome of the 2017 debate was to retain the town’s prohibition on chickens but to instruct code enforcement not to enforce the ordinance.

“So, for the last four years, code enforcement has turned a blind eye to the chickens that we have,” Campbell said. “That doesn’t sit well with me. I’m a rules-type of girl, and I want to follow the rules that we have. If you want to allow chickens, then allow chickens. If you don’t want to allow chickens, then leave (the ordinance) alone, but give us the enforcement ability to address it.”