The question of whether to allow backyard chickens came up again Nov. 18 at Skokie’s Village Board meeting after a trustee proposed repealing the village’s ban on the birds.
Trustee James Johnson proposed asking staff to draft an ordinance allowing residents to keep chickens in their backyards, similar to ordinances in nearby municipalities, including Evanston and Chicago, as an environmental benefit. The village’s Health Commission, however, voiced its concern that allowing residents to have chickens could exacerbate the village’s issues with rats and spread diseases to humans. The board rejected the proposal without heading to a vote, as no other trustee stepped forth to second Johnson’s motion.
On Sept. 30, Lisa Sanzenbacher, the village’s Sustainability Coordinator, wrote a letter to Michael Charley, the director of Health and Human Services, with a recommendation to allow well-kept chicken coops in Skokie, after being requested to mull over it by Johnson.
The letter said, “The majority of the (Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission) group supports well-maintained backyard chickens for the following sustainability-related reasons:
• Self-sufficiency of a personal amount of food production.
• Having a deeper understanding and appreciation of the resources involved in protein production, including feed and water needed to maintain the chickens.
• Potential health benefits of home-produced eggs.”
Charley and Cameron Hendricks, the village’s Environmental Supervisor, also penned a letter on Oct. 7 to the Board of Health in opposition to backyard chickens, citing nuisances chickens could bring and the limitations on how the village could regulate coops, though they also wrote about the positives they could bring.
On Oct. 10, Edward Linn, the chair of the Board of Health, and Charley wrote a letter to Mayor George Van Dusen on why they felt the village should not repeal its backyard chicken ban.
“Keeping backyard chickens in an urban environment like Skokie presents a complex mix of challenges and opportunities,” the letter stated. “Although some residents might benefit from access to fresh eggs and a closer connection to food sources, concerns about nuisances, potential health hazards, and the risk of chicken abandonment were deemed sufficient to support the continuation of the ban.”
Johnson expressed concern that because he had placed the item on the Village Board meeting agenda, he wanted to lead the discussion.
“I very much welcome Mike Charley’s and Dr. Linn’s input. You know, the (Village) Board’s never officially asked for the Board of Health’s input. Just process-wise, since I’m the member of the board that made the agenda item request, it would be proper for me to introduce it,” Johnson said.
A backyard chicken coop in unincorporated Lansing in 2022. Some residents in La Grange were urging board members to revisit a 1982 ordinance prohibiting backyard chicken coops in the village. (Alexandra Kukulka / Daily Southtown)
Nevertheless, Linn and Charley introduced the agenda item to the Village Board and Johnson followed that with a presentation in favor of backyard chickens.
Linn said his research on the subject came mostly from the Centers for Disease Control. “There’s a significant issue involving communicable diseases and backyard poultry, specifically chickens,” he said, referencing a report from the CDC that there were 470 reported cases of salmonella between January and September in the U.S., with backyard chickens being the root cause of it.
According to that study, eight cases were reported in Illinois in that time frame. The study did not go into depth regarding where in Illinois people got sick.
Bird flu was also another concern the board of health has if residents were allowed to have backyard chickens, Linn said.
“The other big issue for Skokie has to do with our increasing problem with our control of rats… There’s good evidence that backyard chickens do contribute potentially to this problem, because of feed and waste,” Linn said. He also said backyard chickens could unintentionally bring in coyotes, foxes and raccoons that would prey on the chickens.
“Clearly, it involves a tremendous amount of effort on the owner of the coops to maintain it according to the strictest standard to try to mitigate against these problems,” Linn said. “We just don’t know how successful we are at being able to control the behavior of humans that have the birds in their backyard.”
Charley acknowledged that there were some benefits to backyard chickens when it comes to eggs for human consumption, and said that they were good for hobbyists and families.
“Now just isn’t the right time,” Charley said when he considered the possible negative consequences. “I think it’s something we can revisit in the future, but right now, I’m not recommending backyard chickens.”
Jennifer Grossman, the chair of the Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission, gave an unprepared statement on behalf of the commission to the Board, because the Board did not officially ask the commission to prepare one, she said.
“There was one member (of SEAC) who was very against the idea, otherwise the discussion was kind of… what they knew about the environmental benefits of keeping backyard chickens,” Grossman said. “As a commission, we’re much more in favor of permitting backyard chickens because of the environmental benefits… obviously our focus is sustainability versus looking at the health issues, so that really wasn’t as much our concern. We discussed those but we were just looking at it from a sustainability perspective,” she said.
Trustee Ralph Klein asked Grossman if the commission did any research ahead of its discussion, which Grossman said the commission did not do. “There was no directive from the manager’s office to look into the issue, to which on other issues that have looked into, we’ve done research like that. This was not a situation like that.”
Village Manager John Lockerby clarified that Johnson requested SEAC to look into the issue, but did not notify Lockerby of it.
“No member of this board has ever publicly asked the Board of Health to weigh in either. So much of this review has happened behind the scenes, so I hope we all can just keep that in mind,” Johnson said.
Johnson said backyard chicken coops have existed in Skokie for some years, and they simply get shut down when they are found. Johnson said he spoke to experts in the area, and that complaints made by residents in towns that allow backyard chickens came from coops that did not have a license, where otherwise people who own them could have applied for one.
“My argument would be that since chicken coops already exist and already have existed in Skokie for many, many years in an unregulated way, that permitting and regulating them is the best way to ensure that they’re maintained in a really thoughtful way,” Johnson said.
At public comment, four people spoke in favor of backyard chickens, and one spoke about possible community backlash between neighbors. Johnson filed a motion in favor to call a vote for the village’s staff to draft an ordinance on backyard chickens, but did not receive support from other Village Board members, so the measure died.
