Sanford going to the birds

SANFORD — If you thought Sanford went to the birds when residents voted to make it a city, you may be right.

The Town Council – it doesn’t become a City Council until Jan. 1 – has asked Town Manager Steven Buck to draft a Residential Chicken Ordinance “to address ongoing requests to keep chickens within the Compact Zone.”

Council Chairman Alan Walsh said Tuesday that Buck’s work will go before the council’s ordinance subcommittee and then to two readings by the full council, each accompanied by a public hearing.

“I expect we will vote on it at the second hearing,” he said. “My plan is that the council will take action by the end of the year.”

According to Code Enforcement Officer Shirley Sheesley, as things stand now, Sanford residents can keep chickens in the rural parts of town. However, they cannot be kept in urban and residential zones. Or, more correctly, because domestic chickens are nowhere mentioned in Sanford’s Table of Land Use, they are barred by omission.

The Table of Land Use does allow chickens to be raised “for commercial purposes,” with approval, in the Rural Residential, Rural Mixed-Use and Industrial Re-use zones. But the table makes no mention at all of chickens kept for personal uses.

“If it’s not listed in the table, it’s prohibited,” said Sheesley on Tuesday, explaining the violation orders she routinely issues to homeowners in the residential zones who keep chicken in their back yards.

One person who has recently received a violation notice is Morning Street resident Zendelle Bouchard, who says her efforts to maintain the right to grow and raise her own food has uncovered a tangle of outdated rules and regulations in Sanford.

On Sept. 12, Bouchard was issued a violation notice following unspecified neighborhood complaints about her 16 Wyandotte hens. The order gave Bouchard 10 days to get rid of the chickens. After that, she was to have been fined $100 per day.

“I presume the complaint was about noise, but there’s a guy with a dog on one side of me and one with a chain saw on the other,” said Bouchard. “So, I don’t think they make any more noise than my neighbors.”

Bouchard also noticed that cats and dogs are similarly undocumented in the Table of Land Use.

“Are they prohibited, too?” she asked.

When the answer came back that dogs and cats are OK because they are dealt with elsewhere in Sanford’s code of ordinances, Bouchard sat down to do some research.

What she found was that chickens also are permitted elsewhere in town ordinance, specifically, Article 1 of Chapter 78, which deals with animals. It reads, in part, “No person owning or having care of any domestic fowls, swine, cows or other animals . . . shall keep the same in any building or dwelling house within the compact area of the Town of Sanford without having first obtained a permit from the Town Council.”

“‘Domestic fowl and swine?’” said Bouchard. “That sounds like language from 80 years ago.”

As if proving Bouchard’s point, the passage also states that Sanford’s Board of Health is responsible for making chicken-owners obtain a council permit, and that, if any residents refuse, “the Board can access a flat fine of $20.”

Sanford long ago did away with its Board of Health, a throwback to the Spanish flu era of the early 20th century, when such boards were created across Maine to force the shuttering of public gathering places, such as theaters, to stop the spread of the disease.

“That [board] hasn’t existed since long before my involvement in the town, so, at least 15 or 16 years,” said Walsh. “I think, quite frankly, there are that and other places [in the codes] that need to be cleaned up.”

Instead, Sanford now contracts with a local doctor to act as a public health officer, but, according to the code enforcement office, “we haven’t contacted him for anything in several years.”

Bouchard inquired about a permit, but claims neither code enforcement or the Town Council was aware of the provision.

“It would be a difficult thing to create one, but it would not surprise me to find it’s accurate that it does not exist,” said Walsh. “I have never heard of anyone ask for one.”

Buck could not be reached for comment Tuesday. However, Bouchard says that in a recent meeting with him, the town manager acknowledged the council must create the permit or else update the ordinances.

It appears the latter option may be in the offing, and Bouchard says she would welcome the change, although she was not alerted to the council’s agenda item when it came up for discussion Nov. 13, and wonders what the process may be to eventual passage of provisions allowing her to keep her chickens.

A self-employed antiques dealer, Bouchard started raising chickens about a year before moving to Sanford in 2009. She brought the brood with her when coming to town, both for eggs and, occasionally, for meat. Since being served with the violation notice, she has “put six in the freezer,” leaving a stock of 10.

“I keep them because it’s very important to me to eat healthy, or to at least know where my food comes from,” she said. “Even in organic stores, the eggs do not always come from chickens that eat all-natural foods.

“I’m glad something is being done,” said Bouchard. “Everyone lately is interested the whole ‘eat local’ thing and you can’t get more local than your own back yard. Whether in a rural area or in the city, being able to raise your own food is a basic human right.”

Bouchard is not the only Sanford resident on the backyard bandwagon. Sheesley said she issued another violation notice last week to a Whitman Street resident, even though Buck has reportedly promised Bouchard there will be no enforcement action or fines accessed until the issue is resolved.

“It does seem like there are more and more of these [violation notices] issued,” said Sheesley, “but I don’t know how many. It’s not something I keep track of, how many chickens there are in Sanford.”