Sheldon, Iowa — The mother of a Sheldon girl who has been allowed to keep chickens at her in-town residence, is taking issue with the way the Sheldon City Council went about making their decision to no longer allow small livestock to be kept inside city limits.Kristin Van Engen, whose daughter keeps chickens at their Garfield Avenue residence, says she’s upset because the City of Sheldon failed to notify her family in a timely manner that a public hearing was being held at Wednesday’s City Council Meeting.
For his part, Sheldon City Manager Sam Kooiker acknowledges sending the Van Engens an email advising them of the meeting, which he says was sent strictly as a courtesy to the family.
Van Engen says she thought passage of the ordinance would be a “done deal” at Wednesday’s meeting.
During discussions about the proposed ordinance at Wednesday’s meeting, it was mentioned that one of the three addresses where chickens had been allowed in town had been the subject of complaints from a neighbor stating that the presence of the birds had caused their dogs to bark incessantly. Van Engen told us that the dogs in question belonged to one of her neighbors.
Van Engen says she has just one plea to the Sheldon City Council.
It should be noted that the path an ordinance must travel before becoming law is something of a circuitous and often confusing one. According to Kooiker, the ordinance affecting the keeping of chickens was recommended by the Planning & Zoning Commission, then went to Kooiker and City Attorney Micah Schreurs, who wrote the draft of the ordinance. From there, Kooiker says, it went back to P&Z for their blessing, before coming before the City Council this past Wednesday for a Public Hearing and the Council’s approval or denial of the measure. In addition, there was another measure related to small livestock on Wednesday’s Council agenda. That one tightened up the locations where small livestock could be kept, reducing the area to a couple of areas that, while inside the City’s Zoning authority, are just outside the city limits. That measure passed. The companion ordinance, which would have allowed small livestock to be kept at areas inside the city limits, was voted down by a 3-1 margin, with Council Members Hindt, Snyder and Hamill voting no, while Councilman Wayne Barahona cast the single yes vote.
Van Engen says her daughter’s chickens are a 4-H project and expressed concern over whether she’d be able to keep them until they can be judged at the O’Brien County Fair, which comes after the July 15th expiration of the girl’s original special exception the Council had granted last summer.
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Original post 3:47pm, July 8, 2021
Sheldon, Iowa — Chickens and other livestock will no longer be allowed to be kept inside the city limits of Sheldon, after action by the Sheldon City Council.
The Council actually dealt with two proposed ordinances at this week’s regular meeting, one of which passed and the other which was voted down.
The ordinance that passed tightened up the definition of the places where livestock may be kept in town, according to City Manager Sam Kooiker.
It should be noted that both locations mentioned by Kooiker, while inside the City’s zoning jurisdiction, are actually located outside the Sheldon City Limits. He says in those areas the livestock could be allowed by a permit from the Board of Adjustment. The 2nd and 3rd Readings of the ordinance were waived by the Council and it will now become law.
The second ordinance, which would have allowed the animals inside the City limits, failed to win the support of the Council.
Kooiker says the defeat of that ordinance means that no chickens or other farm animals may be kept inside the City Limits, and that those who were allowed to keep them under previous special exceptions must remove the birds.
Both the City Council and the Board of Adjustment have devoted a significant amount of time and discussion to the issue over the past several months, before the Council’s final decision this week.
Since the defeat of the ordinance, the Sheldon City Council can no longer consider individual livestock requests.
