A final decision on whether farm animals and bees are appropriate in the densely populated zones of Westbrook won’t be coming until March.
But the Westbrook Planning Board has decided to separate bees from farm animals, and have independent language in the ordinance for each.
City staff will use a Texas ordinance as a guideline for establishing an ordinance regarding beekeeping, and will continue to look elsewhere for guidance on chickens and other farm animals.
City Planner Brooks More said Wednesday that the planning board directed him at its Tuesday meeting to model Westbrook’s ordinance language regarding beekeeping after an ordinance established as a model for Texas communities by the Texas Beekeepers Association in 1988.
“We’re going to tailor it to meet Westbrook,” said More.
The idea for the ordinance came from Mark Leclair, a Chestnut Street resident, who has kept bees in Westbrook for the past 23 years – nine of them on Chestnut Street.
Leclair received a citation from the city last fall after the city received a complaint from one of Leclair’s neighbors. Leclair keeps six beehives in his back yard. Leclair appealed the citation, as did another Chestnut Street resident, Bob Ledoux, who was cited for keeping about a dozen chickens in his back yard. A neighbor of Ledoux’s had complained to the city that the chickens were noisy in the night on several occasions last summer. Ledoux has raised his chickens in his back yard for several years.
The two complaints forced the city to face the question of what animals are appropriate in its most densely populated residential zoning district.
The chicken, bees and bunnies that faced eviction in October were allowed to stay put as the city pondered the issue.
Before receiving the complaints, the keeping of these types of animals and insects hadn’t been an issue. In fact, the city’s ordinance didn’t include any language on the subject for residential zones, although more rural residential zones allow for farming activities.
As for the chickens and other farm animals, More said city staff haven’t decided yet what the ordinance language should be.
“We’re going to be doing some research and most likely come up with a set of alternatives,” he said.
He expects to present a set of alternatives to the planning board at its March 20 meeting.
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