La Salle: No more female ducks, chickens in city limits

La Salle residents will no longer be allowed to keep female ducks and chickens, as the City Council voted Tuesday to amend the previous ordinance.

Mayor Jeff Grove said the ordinance is forward-looking, meaning residents who already have female chickens and ducks will be grandfathered in.

The council passed the ordinance 5-3, with Aldermen Jordan Crane, Jim Bacidore and John Lavieri voting no. Alderman Bob Thompson was not present, so Mayor Jeff Grove voted aye to cast the deciding vote.

Grove said the ordinance was spurred by neighborhood complaints.

“Some people are very good with their chicken coops,” he said. “Some folks don’t take very good care of them.”

Crane said he receives a lot of complaints about them, but the complaints are about residents who are not following the rules that have already been established.

“That’s the problem,” he said. “The ones who do follow the rules, kudos to them. I support them 100%, but all the complaints I get are from people not following the rules.”

Under the ordinance passed in February 2012, a resident was not permitted to have more than 10 hens and female ducks, they should be at all times be confined within an appropriate enclosure, not be located closer than 25 feet to any residential structure on any adjacent premises and the area where they are kept should maintain a clean and sanitary condition at all times.

No residents who owned a coop were present at Tuesday’s meeting.

“That’s the problem. The ones who do follow the rules, kudos to them. I support them 100%, but all the complaints I get are from people not following the rules.”

—  Alderman Jordan Crane

Residents were also required to apply and register for a permit. Male ducks and roosters were not permitted.

Police Chief Mike Smudzinski said the department has had about three to four calls since the start of the year and has issued some citations.

“Two of them were actually the stench with the heat,” he said. “I shut one of them pretty much down. I told them their neighbors couldn’t breathe. We’ve had a couple where the chickens were running around. It’s causing a problem.”

Lavieri said the city should fine the people who are not following the rules and not punish the ones that are following them.

“I think we should accept new ones, but they need to follow the rules,” he said.

Public Information Officer Brent Bader said that the city will notify the license holders to register with the city a final time, so the city will have a final list on file.