The Moab City Planning Commission unanimously agreed last week to table a vote on a proposed ordinance that would allow city residents to keep chickens in their backyards.

During a public hearing on proposed ordinance 2009-01, which would allow many Moabites to have chickens in their yards for non-commercial egg laying, interested citizens spoke for and against the proposal, raising questions and concerns that led the commission to direct city staff to make changes to the ordinance.

As written, the proposed ordinance would allow up to four chickens without a permit at homes in residential zones, as well as at single family dwellings in commercial zones. With a permit, residents could keep up to 10 chickens on their property.

Area residents packed the City Council chambers for the public hearing. More than 30 people sat in the audience, and a handful of latecomers chose to stand in the doorway rather than take the few, remaining seats in the very front. In all, 15 people, over a 40-minute period, chose to speak. Most expressed support for the ordinance.

Moab resident Colin Topper said he supports the proposal because of his son. Having chickens, Topper said, is a way for his child to understand “raising something, caring for something and in return receiving something for his efforts, for his love, for his care.”

That’s a learning experience he wants to “protect,” Topper said.

“This is really a sustainability issue,” said Jen Sadoff, who, along with Sue Phillips, made the initial request that the city consider allowing chickens. In January, Sadoff and Phillips also submitted a sample draft ordinance to city planning staff.

Moab resident Ron Georg responded to a recent Times-Independent guest commentary written by John Hartley, in which Hartley said he opposes the ordinance as written. Georg said that the value of raising chickens outweighs the amount of effort or expense required.

“We should be proud to have a little dirt under our fingernails,” Georg said, to applause.

The proposal also had its share of dissenters. Early on, Hartley expressed concern about enforcing the ordinance’s guidelines, especially in regard to upkeep of chicken coops. In his words, the proposal has “no teeth.”

“If you don’t have to have a permit to have four chickens, how do you enforce what everyone is doing with four chickens?” he asked the commission.

Hartley said that, to him, it makes more sense for everyone to apply for a permit.

“A blanket zoning change doesn’t seem right to me,” he said.

Barbara Hicks raised the issue of renters owning chickens, as well as a variety of other concerns.

“I think it opens up a Pandora’s box of problems,” Hicks said, referring to the ordinance as a whole.

Even some in vehement support of the proposal had a bone to pick with the commission. Several people suggested increasing the number of chickens allowed.

Planning commissioner Wayne Hoskisson addressed that suggestion. “Yes, it might be nice to share eggs with your neighbors, but that’s not the intent of this ordinance,” he said.

Ultimately, planning commission members decided to revisit the proposal at their next meeting, after directing city planning staff to address a number of the concerns raised, including enforcement, the number of chickens allowed, the fee amount for a permit and the issue of renters having chickens.

The commission will hold further discussions on the ordinance at its meeting to be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday. Feb. 26. If the commission votes to recommend approval of the ordinance, it will move on to Moab City Council.

While this means a delay in the outcome, people on both sides of the chicken question said they were patient and trusting of the process.

Although he’d like more regulation on the issue, Hartley asserted, “I’m really not trying to stop anybody from doing anything.”

And even though Sadoff, one of the proposal’s biggest proponents, admitted that she wished things were going a little quicker, she stressed that what she really wants is a ordinance that not only takes care of chicken owners, but neighbors and chickens themselves.

“Ultimately,” she said, “I’d like it to be something that everybody has a pretty good feeling about.”