The way Amherstburg's mayor tells it, having chickens in residential areas in the town would not be new. Legally having chickens, would.
"Everybody I knew had chickens. Chickens, rabbits, we had sheep at one point," recalls Aldo DiCarlo remembering his childhood growing up on Texas Rd.
It is a change 12-year-old William Brush would like to see, and he made his case to town council Monday night, arguing that three or four chickens a household would be a reasonable limit.
The Grade 7 student argued for a zoning change, but DiCarlo says a decision on it will not likely come until the fall. That is when a report from town staff weighing the pros and cons is expected back before councillors.
While Windsor rejected the idea of backyard chickens a few years ago, other small towns have moved to embrace it. Later this month, councillors in Saugeen Shores west of Owen Sound are expected to vote on a bylaw allowing poultry as pets in an urban setting.
DiCarlo says it is an issue that would require a lot of public input to address concerns about the impact on neighbours. For example, DiCarlo says while hens are not particularly noisy, roosters are.
There is also the impact on the town's resources to consider too.
"If it becomes a bylaw concern, will that tie up what little bylaw enforcement we have available to us?" he wonders. "Even if we do get more bylaw officers, do we want to tie them up chasing down chicken issues instead of the more traditional bylaw concerns?"
However the debate goes, DiCarlo can testify to the appeal of chickens.
"There was someone right next to the park who had chickens," he says. "The children loved them because their backyard fence backed up to the park, so they could come up to the fence and see the chickens running around the yard."
