Nearly all the Town is zoned residential. There are a few areas that are zoned community commercial, neighborhood commercial, general office, and office residential. In those zones, raising livestock is not permitted, and that means it is prohibited.
However, in residential areas, household pets may be kept.
§ 153.211 ANIMALS.
(A) The keeping of household pets shall be allowed as an accessory use in all zoning districts in which residential dwelling units are permitted.
(B) The keeping of exotic or wild animals shall not be allowed as an accessory use and shall only be allowed if approved as a special exception in accordance with the procedures contained in §§ 153.040 through 153.055 of this code.
(Ord. 2012-06, § 6.5.12, passed 10-18-2012; Ord. 2013-02, passed 4-18-2013)
What is the difference between raising livestock and keeping pets?
We have a definition of pets in our ordinance:
PET, HOUSEHOLD. Domestic animals typically kept for company or enjoyment within the home. HOUSEHOLD PETS shall include, but not be limited to, domestic cats, domestic dogs, domestic ferrets, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters, domestic laboratory mice, domestic rabbits, goldfish, canaries, and parrots.So, you can see that chickens are not expressly included as pets (neither are pigs, goats, sheep, cows, nor horses.) But then, the definition of pets says that animals other than those listed can be pets.
Plainly, chickens are an important type of livestock. They are raised for eggs and meat.
But chickens can also be kept as pets. For example, there are people that have chickens to compete in shows. There are many collectors of fancy chicken breeds..
I hadn't thought much about it before, but at the public hearing, Kay Kernodle, JIPSD Comimssioner, pointed out that "we" are the South Carolina gamecocks and so should be permitted to keep roosters in our yards. (Clemson fans, you might feel left out, but we are not talking about tigers now.) So, yes, some people keep roosters for cock fighting. It is a tradition where people have roosters fight one another, often to the death, with people betting on the outcome. Some people consider seeing all the chicken blood flying about quite exciting. And the money from the betting is an enticement as well.
I have reason to believe that there are some James Islanders who keep dogs--especially pit bulls--for dog fights too. I would point out that all of this has long been banned under state law. The Town does not have the authority to permit our residents to keep animals to enjoy and profit from blood sport--even game cocks.
Like most local governments in the lowcountry, the Town's code enforcement is complaint driven. People call the Town regarding problems. We look at the Town ordinances, and if there is a violation, we pursue compliance. We always point out to a resident or property owner that there is a violation and insist on compliance. Sometimes we are met with defiance. Sometimes there is an agreement to correct the problem, but the delays begin to look like passive resistance. The result is a ticket and a summons to County Magistrate's Court on Riverland Drive. Then there is one fine and then another until we achieve compliance with our code.
Personally, I don't necessarily agree with all of our codes, but it is the Mayor's job to see that they are enforced. Any citizen of the Town may make complaints, but they also may ask Town Council to modify our codes.
The sections of the Town's code regarding livestock and pets were adopted unchanged from what the Town had between 2006 and 2011. It is no different from what the Town had from 2002 to 2004. And it is no different from the County ordinance that applied in the area of the Town between incorporations. (People who think their chickens are a nonconforming allowed use because they had them before 2012 are very much mistaken.)
So, if we get a complaint about chickens, we start with the presumption that raising chickens is not permitted in any part of the Town at this time. (Our ordinances are no different from those of Charleston County's current ordinance for residential areas.) But, if there is a credible argument that these particular chickens are pets, then that is permitted. In my view, one clear limitation on the "pets" defense is numbers. One chicken could easily count as a pet. Perhaps even a few. When we get a complaint and someone has sixty chickens, the "pets" defense is a bit thin. I have sworn to uphold our laws.
Further, every time I hear arguments about how great it is to raise chickens in your own backyard as a source of food for your family--eggs and especially meat-- the pets "exception" is just not credible. To me, when we have a complaint, claiming that the chickens in question are "pets" when they are pretty obviously livestock being raised for eggs and meat in a residential area, it is just is a big fat LIE.
So, I asked our planning director to come up with some kind of modification of our ordinance that would expressly allow limited numbers of chickens in residential zones whether they are plausibly pets or not. I didn't intend to change our complaint driven policy or to prohibit chickens as pets.
I admit that I didn't micro-manage this process. I think our planning director came up with a sensible proposal. Part of this is driven by creating a policy that our single code officer can effectively enforce.
Councilman Blank's proposed compromise that it be one chicken for every 2500 square feet of lot size, so that 6 applies to 1/3 acre sites (our legal minimum) and that larger lots allow more up to a total of 12, seemed reasonable.
In my view, this is much improved over the status quo of no chickens other than pets.
Councilman Milliken's proposal that any number of chickens be allowed by permit was not well-thought out. We need some criterion for issuing permits.
Still, I will ask the Town staff to develop a reasonable permitting system. In my opinion, we should find some way to allow raising poultry on the remaining large parcels in the Town. Perhaps a better solution is to rezone them to agricultural rather than introducing special chicken permits. I am very skeptical about large poultry operations in our residential neighborhoods. But, we will see.
The Planning Commission will look at this in September. It should be back to Town Council in September or October.
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