Council Committee Likes Urban Chickens

By Steve Bell

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The latest trend in the urban agriculture movement is chickens in the city. And a city council committee looked with favor Wednesday on loosening the rules on feathered neighbors.

You can now keep up to 15 chickens in Kansas City, Missouri - as long as they are kept 100 feet from the nearest building used by people.

But the city has been getting about one request a week where a would-be chicken raiser can't provide that much separation. And Beth Low of the Kansas City Food Coalition says the city is behind the curve in its chicken policy.

Low told a council committee: "As other cities pull ahead, many residents of Kansas City, Missouri are quietly gaining chickens, acting out of compliance with our ordinances. This ordinance provides for oversight of that process of new chicken ownership."

Low supports an ordinance to allow distance exceptions on a case-by-case basis as long as all the neighbors say okay. The neighborhoods committee agreed, and recommends that the full council adopt the ordinance after their Independence Day break.