City chickens are off the plate

Since a resident broached the idea earlier this year, members of the Cloquet Planning Commission and Cloquet City Council had been pecking at the idea of changing city code to allow residents to keep chickens in certain residential neighborhoods with large enough lots.

The draft ordinance would have allowed residents to keep up to five hens (no roosters) in the suburban residential or R1 districts on lots a minimum of half an acre. A previous attempt to change the law died for lack of a second in 2012, but would have allowed chickens on any-sized lot, as long as the request met other stipulations.

During its May 21 work session, councilors decided that the change was not worth pursuing at this time. Two councilors said they had received calls against allowing chickens, but none in favor. City Planning and Zoning Director Al Cottingham also said he’d gotten little public interest in the measure.

As for Nicholas Lind, the resident who approached the city about allowing chickens, the council voted to rezone Lind’s seven-acre parcel from R1 to farm residential, where raising chickens is legal.