More residents of North Cowichan could soon be allowed to have chickens in their backyards.
Currently, North Cowichan’s bylaws state that only large properties that are more than 0.4 acres (17,424 sq. ft.) in size are allowed to have poultry on them.
But the regulations around backyard chickens in the municipality could change as part of the upcoming strategic agricultural plan review, or even before, and the issue was discussed during the council meeting on Aug. 20.
Coun. Christopher Justice, chair of North Cowichan’s agricultural advisory committee, said there was an interesting discussion of the backyard chicken bylaw at the committee meeting on July 22, and committee members anticipate that changes to the bylaw could come about either as a result of the review, or if a council member makes a notice of motion on the issue that is successful.
But he said whichever way it could happen, the committee would like to have a chance to think it through more thoroughly before any changes are adopted by council.
Coun. Bruce Findlay said he thinks council doesn’t have to wait for the strategic agricultural plan review to be complete before deciding what to do about backyard chickens.
“It’s considered agriculture but it’s not really agriculture because we’re talking about backyard chickens,” he said. “We’re not talking about a farm that’s going to expand and create a whole new chicken thing. This is just people keeping chickens, sometimes as pets. Maybe I’ll put a notice of motion forward to deal with it right away because I think there’s a lot of people in our community that really want backyard chickens that can’t do it now.”
Findlay said he thinks changes to the bylaw to allow more people to have backyard chickens is the right thing to do, especially when food security is becoming a major issue and this would allow people to have three or four eggs a day for a small family.
“I don’t know how long the zoning bylaw review is going to take, but it’s still going to be awhile I’m sure and that’s my concern, that it’s going to take six months, a year, or maybe even a year and a half before we actually get this back to the table.”
Coun. Becky Hogg said her family had raised chickens on their property on Richard’s Trail which she felt was a good experience for her kids, so she thinks chickens should be allowed in more backyards in North Cowichan.
But Justice pointed out that the issue for now is whether council will endorse the committee’s request that they have a chance to look at it when the issue comes back to council before any decisions are made.
Coun. Chris Istace said the request makes sense.
“The committee members are literally the experts on this, so why would we not support their request?” he asked.
Council voted in favour of the committee’s request.
