They've found us in Clemson!!!!!!

Credit to Ray Chandler for this story.

Thanks.

CLEMSON — Chickens will not be welcome residents in the city of Clemson.

The Clemson City Council turned thumbs down Monday on an ordinance that would have allowed the keeping of up to six chickens under carefully prescribed conditions in neighborhoods where covenants did not exclude the fowl. Mayor Larry Abernathy and council members J.C. Cook and Jim Oswald supported the ordinance on the losing side of the 4-3 vote. The proposed amendment to city zoning ordinances would have allowed residents to keep up to six hens in single-family, residential areas as long as the hens at each residence were kept in one roofed and enclosed coop no larger than 32 square feet.

Roosters were specifically excluded, and hens would have remained prohibited in apartment complexes and elsewhere outside of single-family, residential areas. Neighborhood restrictive covenants, however, would have prevailed over the ordinance.

The proposed ordinance was drafted by the city planning staff at the request of the City Planning Commission, which in June declined by a 2-4 vote to recommend amending the zoning ordinances but asked the city planning department to research the issue and prepare a draft ordinance.

The issue grew out of a request by a resident who wanted to keep chickens for eggs, according to planning staff documents.

Mayor Abernathy said he had received seven or eight e-mails from city residents and one had been against allowing chickens.

At a Sept. 2 public hearing, four residents spoke in support of the ordinance, most citing a desire to keep the birds for the eggs. No one spoke against it.

Council member Jeremy Wright, however, said most of the feedback he had received had been negative.

Wright said he saw approval of the ordinance as a slippery slope that could end with other animals being allowed.

“First it would be chickens, then emus and ostriches,” Wright said.

Council member Oswald pointed out that Clemson is situated in an agricultural area and that neighborhoods not wanting chickens could restrict them with covenants.

“We’re a rural community, with a heritage of farming,” Oswald said. “We’re also promoting green.”

His own neighborhood once was home to free range chickens that posed no problems, Oswald said.

Mayor Pro Tem Butch Trent said most of his feedback had been incredulous.

“Most I’ve heard from think this is a big joke,” Trent said.

Mayor Abernathy said the only problems he foresaw would be minor enforcement problems.

But there would be some entertainment value in seeing (Clemson Police Chief) Jimmy Dixon chasing a chicken across town, the mayor said, provoking laughter among the meeting attendees, which included Dixon.

The keeping of chickens in urban settings is a growing trend, according to the Associated Press. The trend is driven by a desire to avoid commercially produced foods in favor of home-grown or locally produced. Often environmental concerns, such as ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions from production or transport, were cited by advocates of urban poultry.

Clemson council says no to chickens.