The Westbrook Planning Board has recommended placing limits on the number of bee hives and chickens that can be kept in a residential zone.
The board’s action comes in response to an issue sparked by two residents, Mark Leclair, who has kept bees in Westbrook for 23 years, the last 10 at his home on Chestnut Street, and Bob Ledoux, who has been keeping about a dozen chickens in the yard of his Chestnut Street home for about 10 years.
Leclair received a citation from the city last fall after a complaint from one of his neighbors. Leclair appealed the citation, as did Ledoux, who was also cited for keeping 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.
The board unanimously recommended Tuesday to the Westbrook City Council that residents be allowed to keep two beehives on plots of land a quarter-acre or less, four hives on plots between a quarter- and a half-acre; six hives on plots from a half to one acre and eight hives on plots of land larger than an acre.
As for chickens, the board’s recommendation would limit residents to six birds on plots of land ranging from .22 acres to just over .4 acres; 12 birds on land ranging from .5 acres to just under 1 acre; 50 birds on land up to 1.8 acres and no limit on land 1.8 acres or larger.
The action taken by the planning board is only a recommendation. Changes to the city’s ordinances would have to be made by the council.
At the planning board meeting, both Leclair and Ledoux asked the board not to make any recommendation that would prevent them from keeping the insects and animals on their property.
“We’ve been keeping bees at that property for 10 years now, and until last year, no one even knew we had the bees,” said Leclair. “I don’t think it’s that much of an issue. No one’s stood to say they were against the bees.”
Ledoux said that his chickens were quiet birds and he looked at them as his pets, not farm animals. “There is no smell, there is no noise,” Ledoux told the board. “You can hear the traffic down on Bridge Street, but you can’t hear my chickens.”
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