Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Setbacks for chicken coops in the City of Brighton were discussed at this week’s Council meeting.

Council earlier adopted an ordinance allowing chickens to be kept in the City, but there was recently some desire to bring it back for further review and discussion.

Councilwoman Susan Gardner stated she was the one who asked for another discussion. She said there is currently a 10-foot setback for chicken coops but other accessory buildings/structures have a 5-foot setback. Gardner said she felt a common 5-foot-setback for whatever the accessory structure might be – a chicken coop, potting shed, a dog house – would be more appropriate. She added sometimes someone might not want that chicken coop anymore but might want to use the structure for something else but now it’s now further out from the property line.

Councilman Ken Schmenk agreed it might make enforcement easier if everything was consistent, and having consistency across-the-board.

Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Bohn asserted there was a lot of investigative work done by staff and discussion before it was approved. He explained his view is that there is one resident who created his own hardship by putting up a chicken coop when he knew it wasn’t permissible and residents weren’t allowed to have chickens in the city at that time. Bohn said it seems to him, the discussion is intended to be an end around to the ordinance so one person who created his own hardship can keep his chicken coop in his backyard right where its at. He stated “I’m unilaterally opposed to thinking about changing an ordinance just for one person, who chose not to follow city ordinance in the first place - created his own hardship. When you start deviating from a well-adopted, a well-written ordinance just to appease one person that didn’t want to follow the rules - that’s bad, that’s bad government. I’m gonna be a hard no if there’s any discussion on wanting to change this ordinance”.

Gardner clarified she was not trying to appease or assist anyone, or trying to help anyone, and also not looking to punish anyone. She said she’s just looking to do what’s best for the community, adding there have been other occasions where other ordinances have been revisited and changed.

Councilwoman Renee Pettengill commented that “when we discussed this, we had a very long conversation, and I just wish that we would have been privy to the coop – the elephant in the room - prior to the discussion that we had. I think that city staff knew about that coop and it wasn’t brought to our attention, the distance that it was when we set the ordinance, so I feel like we didn’t have all the information when we discussed the ordinance”.

Community Development Manager Mike Caruso stated that when research was done, they found that when comparing chickens to dog houses and other animal houses, there was a reason most were set at 10 or more feet - odor and waste management. He noted many were 25-feet and they were initially considering more than 10-feet for the setback.

The item was only up for discussion, so no action was taken.