Chickens and park use fee waivers were the top of discussions among city councilors during their meeting on Feb. 12.
More chickens, please
Residents Wyatt King and Steven Patterson requested that the City Council consider modifying Ordinance 6.16.010 (sections A2 and A4) to allow an increase in the number of chickens a household can have.
The current ordinance allows one hen per 2,000 square feet lot, with a maximum of six chickens. King would like the ordinance to be amended to allow one hen per 1,000 square feet with a maximum of 10. He also recommended the addition of a condition for reasonable care to be taken to deter and avoid pests.
King asserts that this modification would allow Lebanon residents to access affordable, healthy, trustworthy food by producing their own eggs.
“It will help our community to be more resilient and more self-reliant if there’s ever a hardship,” he said.
He mentioned the health benefits of eggs and noted that baby chicks are difficult to find right now, suggesting a demand for chickens.
“Egg prices are going up, everything’s going up, and keeping people fed is a concern of families and institutions,” he said.
“Increasing the number of chickens also increases our community resilience. We know that hardships will happen. There will be supply chain issues, pandemics, the looming Cascadia Subduction quake. If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that we should be prepared and not wait to react to disaster.”
For those who might be irresponsible as chicken owners – allowing unclean conditions that encourage rodents and other pests, King recommended wording to require “reasonable care” would give law enforcement teeth to act when necessary.
Patterson added that being allowed 10 chickens would help families rotate in new baby chicks as the older ones (two years and older) age out and produce less eggs.
City Manager Ron Whitlatch said currently residents can apply for a permit if they want to own more than six chickens, but neighbors have to agree on the request. Councilor Michelle Steinhebel said there have not been any complaints about chickens in a number of years. She asked staff to provide a report on the topic to further inform their decision.
Fee waiver request
The council also spent quite some time discussing requests for fee waivers by nonprofits using city facilities. More specifically, Build Lebanon Trails is preparing for its annual Fun Run and Kids Dash fundraiser at Cheadle Lake Park and asked for a fee waiver for park use.
The use of the park comes with a $1,750 fee, which helps cover electrical, water and maintenance costs. The city denied BLT’s request for a fee waiver at Cheadle Lake Park, due to the cost to the city.
Whitlatch asked if the council would like to put a policy in place that would essentially define and limit or stop the number of waiver requests the city receives.
In February 2022, then-City Manager Nancy Brewer brought the same question to the council. As spring approaches, the city begins receiving requests for park use and fee waivers from organizations running their annual events in city parks.
At the time in 2022, organizations usually brought their request straight to the City Council. Brewer asked if the council would prefer the requests instead be brought to city staff for approval.
“A lot of these are groups that have come multiple times and had council multiple times give them free access,” she told the council on Feb. 9, 2022.
The council agreed to create a policy allowing city staff to make the decision.
At this recent meeting, Councilor David McClain said he’d like to see a standard policy established that applies to everybody. Councilor Dave Workman agreed.
“My conflict here is that I’m a big supporter of BLT, but I would be a hypocrite to sit here and say we should do that for one organization after what I supported in the past,” Workman said. “I get doing it one-off, but there has to be some kind of standard so that there’s not favoritism or bias because of who’s asking.”
Steinhebel noted that the city’s tourism grants are provided to organizations through the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce “so we don’t receive these requests.”
“We didn’t want these decisions to come to us each time, which is why we entrusted the chamber with making those decisions,” Steinhebel said.
McClain added that, after looking through the city’s budget, he better understood the costs to the city for use of parks and trails, and felt – although it’s high – $1,750 was a reasonable price. Of the roughly $250,000 in motel taxes collected, BLT got $25,000 of that last year (Lebanon Downtown Association got $30,000 and the Chamber of Commerce got $75,000).
BLT has a long history of building trails in the city and handing them over to the City of Lebanon. Although BLT does a “fantastic job” that benefits the city as a whole, the city ultimately becomes responsible for more and more upkeep of these parks, McClain said.
BLT does provide $20,000 a year for trail maintenance during the summer.
McClain questioned whether some of the motel tax could help fund park and recreation costs because it could be considered a tourism use.
BLT President Rod Sell told the council that his nonprofit is different from others because it essentially builds infrastructure for free, but he understood the council’s decision.
Ultimately, councilors agreed it’s best to create a policy that helps avoid favoritism when granting waivers. City staff will draft up some ideas and bring them to council in the future.
In other business
- The council heard from Andy and Marilyn Belcher, who asked for an emergency system that would allow residents to be notified of warnings and evacuation routes should a disaster, such as a sweeping fire, come about.
- Whitlach announced staff are considering visiting Washington, D.C., in April for “Water Week.” This would help staff reach out to other water districts and Congressional delegates, and lobby for current infrastructure needs and the Green Peter drawdown.
- Council heard a yearly report from Community Development Director Kelly Hart. She noted the city processed 45 planning applications in 2023 as well as 2024, but the latter year’s applications were for smaller projects and, thus, reduction in building permit valuations. However, the city processed “the largest subdivision that the city has had in over 20 years.”