Citizen Concern Prompts Change in Chicken Rules

The City of Shrewsbury has acted to ease one of the restrictions on its "chicken ordinance" while also clarifying a section of the new law’s language.

was passed March 28 and allows for the raising of domestic female chickens not for slaughter but personal, non-commercial use. It came up again at a Shrewsbury Board of Aldermen work session Tuesday night.

The law had previously stipulated that coops could only be constructed on lots of at least 7,500 square feet. Mayor Felicity Buckley said the board had been emailed by a resident that was concerned the requirement excluded too many homeowners.

Buckley said she conducted some research using the online property locator provided by St. Louis County and found that Shrewsbury can be "quirky," with many residential plots falling just short of that 7,500 square-foot mark.

As part of the ordinance, the animals must be contained in a coop that is positioned set distances from rear and side property lines, as well as the residences themselves.

Buckley said these requirements would be enough to prevent anyone from building a coop on a tiny parcel and recommended that the minimum lot size requirement be removed.

"As long as we keep the setbacks, that's the most important thing," said alderwomen Dee Weicher.

The board also decided to clarify the ordinance's language to specify that the chicken coops must be built behind a residence. The language had previously been unclear as to whether one could be built on a side lot.

The amendments to the law will be brought up for formal passage in an upcoming regular session.

Nuisance Ordinance to Get Major Clean Up

Shrewsbury Director of Administration Jonathan Greever informed the board Tuesday that he is conducting a complete overhaul of the city’s nuisance ordinance.

Greever said the law “has come under tremendous fire, and justifiably so,” for the way it has been enforced in the past. Most recently, a pair of residents approached the board about . 

The ordinance governs how properties in Shrewsbury must be maintained with guidelines that mandate a maximum height for grass and the removal of trash and litter, among other requirements. It also outlines a process for property owners who are found to be not in compliance with the ordinance.

The city’s staff started meeting several months ago to discuss how the ordinance has been enforced and how non-complaint residents or business owners have been approached, Greever told the board.

“We found some deficiencies within the code that we are going to be addressing one at a time,” he said. With spring in full force, weeds are the first priority. “We are systematically going through each step one at a time to build enforcement mechanisms that are uniform, fair, and easily enforceable, and get it to the backend where compliance is enacted in a reasonable time.”