Evanston Passes Hen Ordinance
The Evanston City Council Monday night voted 6 to 3 in favor of an ordinance allowing residents to keep up to six hens in backyard coops.
Evanston joins an increasing number of cities and towns nationally that have passed similar laws as the sustainability and urban farm movement gains ground. The ordinance allows the keeping of no more than six chickens. A license will cost $50 and considering it a "trial period" only 20 licenses will be issued in the first year. If the hen experiment is successful, the cap will be lifted.
Prior to voting, council members as well as citizens voiced their opposition. Fears raised included concerns that hens would attract more coyotes and other wildlife to Evanston to warnings that chicken-droppings would create run-off into Lake Michigan.
Explaining her reasons for backing the ordinance, Alderman Jane Grover (7th) said "it's not the Evanston chickens I fear, it's the large production facilities that have been selling salmonella-tainted eggs." Forming last year to promote legalization of backyard chicken coops, members of the Evanston Backyard Chicken Committee applauded after passage, vowing to hold a backyard celebration "eggstravaganza" in which guests prepared a dish made with hen-fresh eggs.
Posted by Lori Rotenberk
