City Council wrap-up

MAIN STREET MORATORIUM

The City Council asked the city attorney to draft a moratorium on house demolition on a residential area of Main Street. The council is working on a proposal to develop tighter building restrictions downtown to prevent a Main Street landowner from bulldozing a historic home and replacing it with a mansion.

WHAT IT MEANS

The proposed moratorium would last 45 days, which the council hopes would be enough time to meet with neighbors and come up with new development standards. City Atty. Jennifer McGrath will soon return with a moratorium, which requires affirmative votes from four-fifths of the council members present. If all seven council members attend the meeting, a 6-1 vote would be needed for the moratorium to go into effect.

FOWL AND RABBITS

The City Council agreed to begin drafting a law to make it easier to keep birds and rabbits on one’s property. Current law, written in the 1970s, limits residents to 10 chickens, domestic fowl or rabbits, and requires that they’re kept at least 20 feet from the property line, 50 feet from the owner’s home and 100 feet from surrounding neighbors’ homes.

WHAT IT MEANS

The new law would allow residents to keep only four adult chickens at a time, but house them only 50 feet away from neighbors. There would be no restrictions on how close to the property owner’s house the animals could be caged. The law would also make it illegal to possess a rooster more than 4 months old or care for more than two dozen baby chickens.

Councilwoman Cathy Green voted against the change in law, arguing that she was concerned about avian bird flu.

LATTICE EXTENSIONS

The city eliminated a building code that requires homeowners to notify neighbors within a 300-foot radius when they plan to add a 2-foot lattice extension to a fence.

WHAT IT MEANS

Residents now will simply need to get permits from the planning department.