Fremont City Council Meeting: 09/20/22 07:00 PM
3300 Capitol Avenue Div/Dept: Police Department
Fremont, CA 94538 Category: Code Adoptions & Amendments
SCHEDULED
Sponsors:
STAFF REPORT (ID # 4613) DOC ID: 4613
Updated: 9/16/2022 1:08 PM by Susan Gauthier Page 1
AMENDMENT TO THE ANIMALS ORDINANCE - Introduce Ordinance Amending and Adding Sections to Chapter 6.10 Animal Ownership, Chapter 6.20 Licensing and Vaccinations, Chapter 6.30 Impoundment, Chapter 6.40 Animal Fancier’s Permit and Chapter 6.50 Prohibited Activities.
Contact Persons:
Name: Kelly Miott Matthew Snelson
Title: Animal Services Manager Police Captain
Div/Dept: Police Department Police Department
Phone: (510) 790-6646 510-790-6874
E-Mail: [email protected] [email protected]
Executive Summary: In 2018, the City of Fremont substantially amended Title 6 (“Animals”) of the Municipal Code. In July 2021, the City Council requested that staff review ordinances of other cities that promote urban agriculture and the keeping of livestock in residentially zoned areas and to come back to council with a proposed amendment to Fremont’s Animal Ordinance allowing the keeping of two goats and any other amendments deemed consistent with the goal to encourage urban agriculture. The proposed amendments to Title 6 in the attached ordinance provide those changes for keeping of animals for urban farming, including permitting goats in residential areas. In addition, the proposed amendments reduce the length of stay for impounded animals and align with recent state law changes for canine antirabies vaccination and microchipping.
BACKGROUND: Title 6 of the Fremont Municipal Code (FMC) sets forth regulations related to animals throughout the City. When the City was incorporated in 1956, it encompassed many farms with livestock and other animals, but in the last 60 plus years, the City has become mostly urban. In 2018, the City substantially amended Title 6 of the FMC, Animals, to update the code and reflect the urbanization of the City, including the removal of goats and bees within the residential areas of the City due to the lack of shelter facilities and veterinary care for these animals at the Tri-City Animal Shelter. In July 2021, the City Council requested that staff review ordinances of other cities that promote urban agriculture and the keeping of livestock in residentially zoned areas and to bring back to City Council amendments to the Animal Ordinance allowing the keeping of two goats and any other amendments deemed consistent with the goal to encourage urban agriculture. As a result of the request in 2021, City staff has drafted proposed amendments to permit goats and bees in residential zoned areas and regulate ownership to ensure the safety of the animals and the community.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS: In undertaking the assignment from the City Council, City staff reviewed several urban farming ordinances from various California cities, including San Jose, Long Beach, Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Newark, Union City, Dublin, Pleasanton and Hayward. See Appendix A for beekeeping regulations in Alameda County and Appendix B for a comparative summary of chicken and goat regulations in the other cities mentioned.
The proposed amendments to Title 6, as included with this staff report, clarify animal limitations for chickens and permit goat and beehive ownership in areas zoned residential.
Staff Report (ID # 4613) Meeting of September 20, 2022 Updated: 9/16/2022 1:08 PM by Susan Gauthier Page 2
Shelter and shelter maintenance requirements for chickens, goats and bees have been defined and clarified for residential areas to ensure the safety of the animals and to reduce any nuisance conditions to the surrounding community.
Below are the proposed limitations for each
species:
Permitting goat ownership in residential areas may create an increase in goat ownership in the City, which may increase the number of goats impounded. If the fencing is not strong and tall enough to keep them in their yard, goats may escape as they are herd animals who may try to get out to find a herd. Currently, if Animal Services impounds livestock, there is one area at the shelter designated for their housing. If goat ownership increases, the shelter may need more fenced areas built for short term housing of livestock. Additionally, the shelter does not have a veterinarian on staff trained to provide services for livestock and there is no livestock veterinarian practicing in Fremont. Thus, any veterinary care would need to be outsourced to a location outside of the City, which would be an additional cost to administer the proposed changes to the Animals Ordinance.
The proposed amendments also include changes to stay current with changes in state law since the last Animals Ordinance amendments in 2018. The proposed amendments incorporate changes to the antirabies vaccination age for dogs from four months in age to three months of age in alignment with California Health and Safety Code.
Additionally, there are proposed amendments to meet the community needs. It is always in the animal and owner’s best interest to be reunited with their found pet. The amendments give the animal services manager discretion to waive redemption costs in cases of financial hardship if the fees would impose an economic hardship for the owner. In addition, the amendments recommend that the disposition of an impounded animal be reduced from four business days to three calendar days, as animal services staff are available daily for an owner to come retrieve their stray or lost animal. This shorter time period would allow the animals to move through the shelter system faster, keeping the animals healthi er and Number of Chickens Minimum Distance From
Any Property Line Lot Square Footage Permit Required
0 n/a 6,000 or less No
1-5 10 feet 6,001-9,999 No
6-10 35 feet 10,000-21,779 Yes
11-15 50 feet 21,780 + Yes
Number of Goats Minimum Distance From
Any Property Line Lot Square Footage Permit Required
2 10 feet 10,000 + Yes
Number of Beehives Minimum Distance From
Any Property Line Lot Square Footage Permit Required
4 5 feet n/a Yes
Staff Report (ID # 4613) Meeting of September 20, 2022 Updated: 9/16/2022 1:08 PM by Susan Gauthier Page 3
reducing the amount of time the animal is in the shelter’s care. The shelter is currently returning found animals to their owner at a rate far above the national average and this change would help the shelter place adoptable animals faster.
The final proposed change is to remedy an inconsistency between animal regulations regarding dog leash length in Title 6 Animals and Chapter 12.20 regarding parks. Currently, FMC section 12.20.100 requires dogs to be on a leash not to exceed six feet in parks and recreation areas. Title 6 currently allows the leash to be as long as twenty feet in public areas, including parks, which is a danger to both animals and residents. The proposed amendments reduce the leash length to six feet to be consistent with Chapter 12.20.
Staff conducted community outreach to receive feedback regarding the proposed amendments. Outreach included an online survey on the City’s MyFremont community engagement platform and a community meeting, which took place on Thursday, September 8, 2022 from 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM.
The community meeting included a presentation of the draft ordinance with amendments, followed by questions from the audience. There were 53 attendees at the meeting.
Questions covered a variety of topics including:
Whether the City would permit roosters;
Why goats need a distance from property lines and dogs don’t; Why the proposed bee regulations were not nuisance-based Whether current permits for more than 4 beehives would still be valid; Whether goats would need to be vaccinated for rabies; and If animal services officers could do inspections instead of armed police officers.
The community meeting and slide deck can be viewed here: Past Event/Meeting Materials | Fremont Police Department, CA
The survey tool was promoted during the community meeting and shared on City social media channels. The detailed survey results can be found in Appendix C. The City received 53 responses.
In summary, 81% of the respondents want the City to permit up to 4 beehives at a residential property. 85% of the respondents wanted the City to allow goat ownership, and those in opposition cited noise and smell as their biggest concerns. 58% of respondent s do not want the City of Fremont to implement a minimum distance from the property line for chicken ownership.
Of the respondents who submitted comments, recurring themes included that goats are good for weed abatement; there should be no minimum distance from property lines for goats or chickens; the City should work hard to promote urban agriculture and make beehive enforcement nuisance-based only.
FISCAL IMPACT: The City of Fremont does not have a veterinarian on staff and there is no livestock veterinarian practicing privately in the city. Any goats impounded by the shelter requiring veterinary care would need to be seen by a private veterinarian. Additionally, Staff Report (ID # 4613) Meeting of September 20, 2022 Updated: 9/16/2022 1:08 PM by Susan Gauthier Page 4
the shelter does not currently have housing for sheltering goats and would need to build out a space for them to be safely housed or pay for another facility to house any impounded livestock.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: The amendments to the Animal Ordinance are exempt from, and not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to, without limitation, CEQA Guidelines Sections 15378(b)(2) and/or (5), as it is an administrative governmental activity that will not cause any direct or indirect significant physical impact on the environment, and/or 15061(b)(3) in that the activity is covered by the general rule that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that the there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA. The amendments to the Animal Ordinance will clearly not have a significant effect on the environment and, thus, CEQA does not apply.
ATTACHMENTS:
• Draft Ordinance Amending Title 6 Animals
• Appendix A - Beekeeping Regulations in Alameda County • Appendix B - Chicken and Goat Regulations in other Cities • Appendix C - Survey Responses Report_Animal Survey
RECOMMENDATION: Waive the first reading and introduce the proposed ordinance, attached as Exhibit A, amending Fremont Municipal Code Sections 6.10.030, 6.10.040,
6.10.070, 6.20.010, 6.30.040, 6.30.060, 6.40.030, 6.40.040, and 6.50.040, and adding Sections 6.10.130, 6.40.025, and 6.40.035.