Bugged by bee rules

South Portland residents hope city will rethink beekeeping ordinance.

SOUTH PORTLAND — Whether driven by the economy or the eat-local initiative of recent years, there's no doubt that backyard farming is making a comeback within the city limits of South Portland. But fruits and vegetables need pollination, and that means bees, something not everyone wants to see, and many fear feeling.

Three years ago, South Portland passed a new beekeeping ordinance, becoming one of just a few Maine municipalities to try and rein in apiarist activities. The new rules were prompted when Cash Corner neighbors of Omid Ghayebi complained that his bees were driving their children from a backyard kiddie pool.

Although it was reportedly the only such complaint in at least 20 years, the city took swift action, limiting the number of hives allowed on a given lot, depending on the lot’s size, and instituting a $25 annual fee per location. Beekeepers also were told their hives could not interfere with "the normal use or enjoyment of any property in the vicinity, by humans or animals."

Anyone with a beehive is subject to fines of up to $1,000 per day for each violation.

It was at about that time when Phil Gaven was taking an interest in beekeeping, spurred in part by new reports of "colony collapse disorder," a disease of unknown origin that has decimated honeybee populations across the nation. Gavin and Paul Jacobs, two of six registered apiarists in the city, were on the agenda in hopes of getting the ordinance repealed, or at least relaxed.

"If you took away all the crops that are pollinated by honeybees, it would basically cut a grocery store's offerings in half. Even down to the hamburgers we eat, bees are important," Gavin told city councilors during a special workshop session held June 27 at the community center.

"Nationwide, there is about a 10 percent increase each year in the number of hobbyists," said Gaven. "Our whole concern is that this is an activity that should be encouraged. We shouldn't be putting up obstacles."

Gavin gave councilors a list of 20 cities, including major metropolises such as New York and San Francisco, which he claimed have eased or repealed beekeeping ordinances in recent years. South Portland's rules, he said, are overly restrictive, with technical hive management rules – such as colony density, queen selection and water supply – written in seeming ignorance of the accepted "best practices" of the industry.

"State law already covers all the needs of this municipality," said Gavin.

Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis, an unabashed advocate of local agriculture who championed the establishment of a local farmers market in her inaugural speech, came down squarely in Gaven's corner.

"This is overworked and overdone and way too much," she said of the ordinance. "The fee structures are absurd. The fines are ridiculous."

However, others on the council appeared to fear a sort of apiary anarchy, if beekeepers were allowed to go unchecked. Restrictions are needed, they said, to deal with irresponsible, or ill-informed, hobbyists.

Although the city has no apiary expert on staff, Councilor Maxine Beecher said she "worried" about allowing beekeepers to "police themselves."

City Manager James Gailey opined that the fine structure could be amended, but said the ordinance itself should not be overturned.

"By no means is the ordinance drafted to penalize anyone," he said. "It's only there to help us deal with the individuals who are not good beekeepers. It gives us some enforcement capabilities.

"South Portland could be the densest community in the state," Gailey added, suggesting that unrestricted beekeeping may be unsuited to an area where 23,000 people are packed into just 13 square miles.

Lewiston is the only place in Maine that prohibits beekeeping within its borders. Closer to home, Westbrook has a governing ordinance, sans fees and fines. Portland, which has no governing ordinance, reportedly has 40 apiarists.

Gaven, who keeps four beehives at three locations in South Portland, says he plans to open a store in Portland next month, to be called The Honey Exchange, featuring honey and wax products.

Whether or not his production stream will remain constrained by South Portland's ordinance remains to be seen. The City Council said only that it may conduct additional workshop sessions "later this year" to review the ordinance with experts in the field.