ITEM 5. 4
CITY MANAGER' SREPORT
JANUARY 13, 2025 CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING
ITEM: CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSION REGARDING KEEPING
FOWL WITHIN CITY LIMITS
RECOMMENDATION: City Council to Discuss and Provide Staff Direction Regarding a Potential Amendment to the Municipal
Code Regarding Keeping Fowl Within City Limits
SUMMARY:
Based on feedback from residents and City Staff, staff recommend a discussion by City Council to consider amending the Municipal Code regarding keeping fowl within the city limits ( LMC 6. 16. 010).
Tonight' srequested action from the Council is to provide direction to staff whether to propose an amendment to the existing municipal code governing fowl.
BACKGROUND:
The current Lathrop Municipal Code, LMC sections 6. 16. 010 through 6. 16. 040, imposes general restrictions on the possession of chickens and other fowl in areas zoned as residential, establishing acreage requirements, a maximum number of animals per parcel, and minimum setbacks from all dwellings and lot lines. These regulations have been designed to preserve neighborhood aesthetics, ensure animal welfare, and prevent the accumulation of waste that could impact public health.
Current LMC:
6. 16. 010 Keeping livestock, fowl, rabbits and bees within the city limits.
A. No person shall stable, keep, pasture or maintain any livestock, fowl, rabbit or bees within the limits of the city on any lot unless expressly allowed to do so by the zoning provisions. No person owning any interest in any lot or parcel of real property, within the limits of the city shall permit the same to be owned, kept, possessed or maintained upon such lot or parcel of real property unless expressly permitted by the zoning provisions. The provisions of this section shall not apply, however, to any circus, carnival or show permitted to operate within the limits of the city.
B. For the purposes of this section, the lot specifications shall be:
1. Livestock and Bees. No person shall stable, keep, pasture, or maintain any livestock or bees within the limits of the city on any lot less than one acre.
CITY MANAGER' SREPORT PAGE 2
JANUARY 13, 2025 CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING
CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSION REGARDING KEEPING FOWL WITHIN CITY LIMITS
2. Fowl and Rabbits. No person shall keep or maintain any fowl or rabbit within the limits of the city on any lot less than one- third of an acre, except as provided for in subsection ( B)( 4) below.
3. Pot -Belly Pigs. No person shall keep or maintain any pot -belly pig within the limits of the city on any lot less than 10, 000 square feet.
4. Peacocks. No person shall keep or maintain any peacock within the limits of the city unless such peacock was present in the city on January 1, 1990.
6. 16. 020 Keeping livestock, rabbits and fowl —Requirements.
For the purposes of this section, no person or persons, firm or corporation shall keep or maintain or cause to be kept or maintained within the city any fowl, rabbit or livestock unless allowed by the zoning chapter and only under the following conditions:
A. No person shall keep or maintain in the city more than 12 mature fowl or rabbits, or combination thereof.
B. No person shall raise, keep or have in his or her possession in the city any live rooster.
C. No person shall keep or maintain more than two adult livestock animals.
However, no adult male goat or sheep shall be kept or maintained unless neutered.
D. Rabbits must be kept in hutches so constructed as not to allow the urine to pollute the ground, and provided with floors that are removable for the purpose of cleaning and disinfecting; no box hutches will be permitted.
6. 16. 030 Enclosures required.
Where any fowl, rabbit or livestock animal is permitted under the zoning code, no person may keep, harbor or possess any such animal unless the following conditions are met:
A. The fowl, rabbit and livestock shall be confined within a suitable coop or stall or suitable enclosure after sundown.
B. A stall shall include bedding for livestock such as wood shaving, shredded bark, straw or sawdust.
C. A coop shall have a concrete floor, reasonably impervious to moisture. The concrete floor shall be sloped so as to lead drainage to an outlet point and a drainage system shall be provided.
CITY MANAGER' S REPORT PAGE 3
JANUARY 13, 2025 CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING
CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSION REGARDING KEEPING FOWL WITHIN CITY LIMITS
D. The stall or coop shall at all times be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition, and at all times be free from offensive odors and flies. All dead animals, manure, refuse, feathers, and other waste matter shall be removed within a reasonable time; not to exceed 48 hours, or kept in fly - tight containers until such removal.
E. Such stall or coop shall be well Iimewashed or painted once a year, or more often if necessary.
F. Livestock shall be confined by a lawful fence. A " lawful fence" is any fence which is good, strong, substantial and sufficient to prevent the ingress and egress of livestock. No wire fence is good substantial fence within the meaning of this subsection unless it has three tightly stretched barbed wires securely fastened to posts of reasonable strength, firmly set in the ground not more than one rod apart, one of which wires shall be at least four feet above the surface of the ground. Any kind of wire or other fence of height, strength and capacity equal to or greater than the wire fence herein described is a good and substantial fence within the meaning of this article. The term " lawful fence" includes cattle guards of such width, depth, rail spacing and construction as will effectively turn livestock.
6. 16. 040 Keeping livestock near dwellings prohibited.
A. No person may keep or allow to be kept on premises owned, occupied or controlled by him or her, livestock ( excluding pot -belly pigs kept in residential zones), fowl or rabbits within 50 feet of a dwelling unit or within 25 feet of any property line.
B. No part of any such stall, pasture, coop, hutch or runway shall be less than 50 feet from any dwelling or place of business occupied by human beings for dwelling or business purposes.
C. No person shall keep or maintain any stall, pasture, coop, hutch or runway within 25 feet of any property line of the lot or parcel of land upon which it is situated.
Since the adoption of the current municipal code sections in 1992, owners of parcels less than 1/ 3 of an acre in size have been prohibited from keeping chickens on their properties. A review of Lathrop Police Department calls for service revealed complaints related to fowl at fifteen separate addresses. This enforcement is almost solely in response to complaints received from community members. Approximately half of these complaints occurred in historic areas of the City where the parcel sizes range from about . 17 acres to . 63 aces, with many of the parcels being about 1/ 4 of an acre. Some neighborhoods within the City have existing CC& Rs, HOA bylaws, or other occupancy agreements that prohibit possessing any chickens.
CITY MANAGER' S REPORT PAGE 4
JANUARY 13, 2025 CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING
CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSION REGARDING KEEPING FOWL WITHIN CITY LIMITS
Our current procedure:
If a CS0 is dispatched to a complaint of chickens in violation of the municipal code, the CS0 will do as follows:
1. The CS0 will verify the parcel size based on county assessor records to determine whether the property meets acreage requirements.
2. If not, the CS0 will contact the resident and/ or property owner to let them know that they cannot keep fowl on the property since it violates LMC
6. 16. 010.
2. The CS0 will give the resident and/ or property owner 10-5 days to rehome the animals.
3. The CS0 will follow up and if animals are still there, the resident and/ or property owner will be issued a Notice of Violation. They will be given 7 to 10 days to comply.
4. If not in compliance, the resident and/ or property owner will be issued a citation for violating LMC 6. 16. 010.
5. The resident and/ or property owner will continue to be cited until brought into compliance.
If the council wishes to consider amending the municipal code to expand the number of parcels allowed to possess chickens, general acreage requirements could be lowered, or smaller parcels could be included, but with fewer animals per parcel allowed. For example, the current code states that a parcel that is 1/ 3of an acre can accommodate a maximum of twelve ( 12) chickens. One way to expand the ability to keep chickens would be to amend the code to allow a maximum of eight ( 8) chickens on parcels that are at least 1/4 acre, but less than 1/ 3acre.
There are multiple factors to considering an amendment to the existing municipal code to expand the number of parcels where possessing chickens is allowed. Potential positive impacts include:
Ability for the City to support residents for whom chickens are part of a cost effective, sustainable source of healthy foods such as eggs and meat.
Tailored Enforcement Approach: Larger lots or properties with sufficient setbacks may be able to accommodate the keeping of fowl without impacting neighbors.
The issues and concerns that may arise from lowering acreage requirements include the following:
Neighborhood Character and Aesthetics: The keeping of live animals introduces a variable amount of noise, waste, and odor. These can be partially mitigated by ensuring residents abide by dwelling and lot line offsets, coop construction, and cleanliness requirements as established in the current code.
CITY MANAGER' S REPORT PAGE 5
JANUARY 13, 2025 CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING
CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSION REGARDING KEEPING FOWL WITHIN CITY LIMITS
CC& R Conflict: There are neighborhoods within the City that prohibit keeping of fowl regardless of lot size.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the following actions:
1. City Council to discuss and provide staff direction regarding a proposal to expand the number of parcels eligible to keep fowl within City limits.
FISCAL IMPACT:
No fiscal impact to the City of Lathrop.
ATTACHMENTS:
None.
CITY MANAGER' S REPORT PAGE 6
JANUARY 13, 2025 CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING
CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSION REGARDING KEEPING FOWL WITHIN CITY LIMITS
APPROVALS:
en Seal
Chief of Police
Cari Jame
Finance ctor
Date
Date
9/ 2°- 5
Thomas Hedegard Date
Deputy City Manager
Salvador Navarrete Date
City Attorney
Stephen J. Salvatore Date
City Manager