Melissa Ross
Chicken-keeping residents across Duval County both in the urban core and in more rural areas may soon have reason to cluck their cheer if a new rule allows them to keep those hens on their property, permanently.
“People really want to get in touch with their food comes from. I want my son to know that eggs don’t come from a grocery store,” said Genora Crain-Orth, founder of River City Chicks, a local advocacy group.
Crain-Orth made her remarks during a segment on WJCT’s First Coast Connect. She’s part of a coalition of local urban agriculture enthusiasts hoping an ordinance before the city council this week would make permanent a pilot program approved in 2013 allowing people to keep up to five hens (no roosters allowed).
City Councilman Doyle Carter, who represents Jacksonville’s agricultural West Side, says it’s just one local reflection of the urban agriculture movement popular around the country.
“We’ve had chickens and cows and horses all my life,” Carter said. “We now have a distinct ordinance looking at this, that covers certification and education through the ag extension office. And we’ve done hundreds of permits since we started the pilot program, and no one has been cited.”
Under the new ordinance, hen owners will need a permit and must attend a backyard chicken-keeping class through the local ag office, among other conditions.
In 2013, the city launched a pilot program allowing 300 permits for backyard chicken-keeping. The new ordinance would expand that ability to everyone who lives in a single-family home, as long as they take the county class.
Former council candidate Lisa King is on the city’s Planning Commission, which unanimously approved the measure this month.
“As a homeowner you can have as many dogs or cats as you want. Backyard hens are largely people’s pets, so why are we treating them differently?” she said. “People have been keeping chickens across Jacksonville illegally a long time. This will legitimize what’s already been going on.”
