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Will chickens roost in Brownlee Woods?
YOUNGSTOWN
The city planning commission recommended a request from a Brownlee Avenue homeowner to have chickens at his home, but ordered a Wick Avenue resident to get rid of his chickens and roosters.
It was the latest in what’s been a steady stream of requests from those in urban neighborhoods looking to keep nondomesticated animals, particularly chickens, on their property.
City council has acted on only one of the planning commission’s eight recommendations regarding chickens in the neighborhoods in the past year.
On Tuesday, the commission recommended council permit Craig A. Barrett of Brownlee Avenue to have up to eight chickens on his property.
The city code permits up to eight chickens, but Barrett has 10, so he’ll have to get rid of two of them.
Some people who don’t live near Barrett objected to his chickens complaining about roosters making too much noise.
Roosters aren’t permitted in residential neighborhoods under city code, and Barrett said he doesn’t have any and “would never have a rooster, ever.”
Genaro Rojas Mojica of Wick Avenue has two roosters and two chickens.
Neighbors called city officials to complain about Mojica’s roosters, said Tara Cioffi, the city health department’s environmental health director, who inspects properties for compliance with the nondomesticated animals policy.
“We have pitbulls and feral cats and now roosters and chickens,” said Marc Beechy, Mojica’s neighbor. “The roosters never shut up. It does the neighborhood a disservice.”
The commission recommended council not allow Mojica to keep his chickens and roosters. Cioffi said Mojica, who didn’t attend the hearing, told her he was getting rid of them.
In another matter, the commission rejected a request from Redemption Inc. for a waiver to establish a group home on Crandall Avenue within a 2,000-square-foot radius of two other licensed group homes. Several people at the meeting said there are already too many group homes on the city’s North Side.