Complete Packets for Plan Commission Now on Web Site

On Saturday, City Planner Paul Kachelmaier updated the city web site and posted:

Staff report-Keeping chickens ord. amdmt.

Chicken Ordinance amendment background and

Chicken Ordinance Amendment background

Excerpts from the staff report:

[Monona contacted Coty of Madison staff]

Heidi Conde, Madison Zoning Code Enforcement Officer

Heidi Conde works on the east side of Madison and said they have gotten approximately five (5) complaints mostly regarding the illegal keeping of roosters crowing in the morning and residents keeping more than four (4) hens on their property, which exceeds the maximum number of hens allowed in the City in a residential property. She said she has not received any complaints and / or concerns of adjacent property owners regarding the cleanliness of the site, the treatment of the chickens, or any other health concerns. She said another complaint they have is the keeping of chickens without the proper licenses because residents do not know they need to acquire such a license. She said when they receive complaints, they go to the property in question, inspect it and take photos, send notices to property owners in violation of their code, and re-inspect the property once the property owner remedies the situation. She said she has never had to take any further action than this, but if she does, she has two options (1) issue a WI uniform citation or (2) refer the case to the City Attorney to take legal action against the property owner. Again, she said a notice usually fixes the problem and they haven’t had to resort to the other options as of February 25, 2009.

***

Matt Tucker, Madison Planning Department

He said they have had somewhere between five (5) and ten (10) cases a year of residents calling in complaints for people who keep chickens on their property. He said the complaints are generally quality of life complaints such as a rooster waking them up early in the morning, residents keeping more than four (4) hens exceeding the limit specified by the City code, the smell and traces of feces, and concerns about the chicken feed attracting rats to the area.

Madison City Treasurer

The representative from the Treasurer told her that [Madison] issued fifty-four (54) licenses for the keeping of chickens in the past year.

END OF EXCERPT

Prorating Madison's numbers to Monona, one would expect zero or one complaint per year.