The Sturgis City Commission Wednesday voted to have city staff develop a proposed ordinance and corresponding ballot language concerning urban chickens within city limits. The decision of whether to allow urban chickens in Sturgis will likely be placed in the hands of city residents in August 2024.

The planning commission has been developing and structuring a proposed ordinance over the last few months, and considered conversations and public input while determining language for the ordinance. 

If an urban chicken were to be permitted in the city, the following ordinance sections would need to be amended or added:

• Addition of City Code of Ordinance section 10.65. – Urban Chickens
• Amendments to section 10.64. – Keeping of animals, fowl, etc. restricted
• Amendment to section 1.1105. – Accessory buildings, structures and uses
• Relating to “Chicken Coops”
• Amendment to section 1.1401. – Building Permits
• Exempting separate permits for accessory structures and fences that are included as part of an urban chicken permit
• Amendment to section Appendix B. – Fine Schedule and Fee Schedule
  • Addition of fees and fines as it pertains to Urban Chickens

In discussions regarding the potential ordinance, Vice-Mayor Aaron Miller spoke first and gave his perspective on a plan of action. “I’ve heard from enough people, as I’m sure we all have, and it seems to be a pretty polarized issue,” he said. “People are either fully for it, or they’re fully against it. I’m just offering up my two cents that I think it would be wise to put it on a ballot for our next already-occurring statewide election.” 

Disagreeing with Miller’s stance, Commissioner Frank Perez said, “This ‘big government’ stuff has got to go. If someone wants to feed their family by having chickens, let them have chickens. All this red tape and all these regulations have got to go.” Perez urged the commission to vote and pass the ordinance, rather than use an election to let citizens decide. “I’ll speak against that,” Commissioner Robert Hile said. “I don’t think we should vote (tonight). I think we should take it to the ballot and let the citizens vote for it.”

City Clerk Ken Rhodes explained to the commission how the process would work should they make the decision to place the issue on an upcoming ballot. “Potentially we could do it in November of this year, but then the city will be paying for that election in its entirety, which I would estimate to be in the neighborhood of $15,000 to do that,” he said. “The next election after that would be the presidential primary, which is still undecided to exactly what the date is, but that would be either February or March.” In that case, according to Rhodes, the election would cost the city as well because there would need to be a separate ballot for proposal ballots only. “That would cost us something in the range of $3,000,” he said. “The next election would be August of 2024, and it shouldn’t cost us anything for that.”

Mayor Jeff Mullins voiced his concerns regarding code enforcement for allowing chickens in town. “I don’t think there’s going to be that many households that are going to do it because of cost and inconvenience,” he said. “My fear is that the few that do may cause more problems than what it’s worth for our code enforcement, and these guys have enough stuff on their plate to deal with. I just think it’s a waste of our taxpayer money to have our code enforcement running around trying to enforce something else.”

Rhodes asked the commission if they were content with the language used in the proposed ordinance, and said the wording on the ballot as well as the question posed to voters would be an important issue to tackle next. “There may be some more work to be done, unless you are all okay with the ordinance as it is presented. Because we wouldn’t be doing this until August 2024, we’ve got a lot of time to actually make a formal resolution to put this on the ballot.” City Manager Andrew Kuk said he believed the commission should direct City of Sturgis staff to bring back a resolution, have the city attorney look at the language and ensure it would be appropriate for the August 2024 ballot. 

Miller presented the motion to the commission saying, “I move that we ask City staff to draw up an ordinance based on what has been presented tonight for the proper readings with an accompanied resolution to be decided on in a future vote.” The vote was passed unanimously.

Beca Welty is a staff writer and columnist for Watershed Voice.