It’s been discussed for several months and the subject of allowing urban chickens in Mexico continues to be discussed by the city council without action.

The council discussed the subject at its regular meeting on July 10 with an actual ordinance in front of them crafted by the council’s attorney. The ordinance incorporated most of the things council members had discussed the last time the issue was brought up in June.

Council members are split in their enthusiasm to move the ordinance forward. Currently, chickens are only allowed if a property owner has more than an acre and the chicken coop must be at least 200 feet from the property line and the person cannot own more than 10 chickens. Under those guidelines, few residents qualify.

Under the new ordinance that was presented a resident would be allowed to own up to 10 female chickens with no roosters. Chicken coops would have to be at least 20 feet from a property line and could only be located in the backyard and the coop would have to be cleaned at least once per week. The city would also issue a permit to the resident that would include an initial inspection.

Council member Chris Williams said he’s heard a lot of concerns from residents about allowing chickens. Williams said most of the complaints center around enforcement of city code if a person who owns chickens isn’t following the rules.

“The people I talk to are worried about a lack of enforcement,” Williams said during the meeting. “We already have houses in town that we’ve fought for years to get correct.”

City Community Development Director Rita Jackson said enforcement would be handled by the animal control department and would be handled like most other nuisances. The chicken owner would first be contacted with a door hanger followed by a letter demanding action be taken by the property owner. If nothing is resolved it could lead to court appearances.

Williams said the people he speaks with are not willing to go through all the steps because someone won’t follow the rules.

“They’re afraid of what’s going to stop these people,” Williams said. “Then they have no recourse and they may have to wait a year or more. We already have that right now in our city. Who wants to live next door to a dirty chicken house? Not me.”

Mayor Vicki Briggs indicated she wasn’t a fan of the ordinance and also said she was concerned about enforcement. On the Fourth of July, the city got a call about a chicken running loose on Boulevard Street.

“It’s our employees who are going to have to deal with the chickens on the run,” Briggs said.

Briggs also said many people don’t know what they are getting themselves into and there could be some unintended consequences.

“It’s a lot of work,” Briggs said. “I think a lot of people think it’s going to be fun to have chickens. It may be for those who really like chickens, they know what they’re doing. But I also worry we’re going to get a bunch of people to try it out and then all of sudden they sort of abandon the project and they have a mess to clean up.”

Councilman Steve Haag said he lived in Columbia previously and that city has a more lenient chicken ordinance than Mexico. Haag said he never saw a chicken while living there and has lived in Mexico for 23 years now and just recently saw the first chicken in town.

“I think we’re assuming once we pass a chicken ordinance every house is going to have a chicken coop,” Haag said. “If a chicken gets out it’s going to have a pretty scary life because there’s a lot of predators out there.”

Haag said chickens, unlike some other domestic animals, don’t present any harm.

“I’ve never seen a chicken bite somebody,” Haag said. “What’s the worst thing they're going to do to go to the bathroom in your yard? They usually run away from you.”

City Administrator Bruce Slagle said with city code enforcement most people don’t cause a problem and fix it when notified. He said the city issues about 1,600 complaints each year and only about 100 escalate any further than a letter.

“Most of the time when you give them notice the majority of them will do something,” Slagle said. “It comes down to a handful that you’ve got to do something with.”

Jackson said out of the 100 or so that do escalate each year most of those are repeat offenders.

“For most people, a friendly reminder will work but you do have a few that will make it difficult for everybody,” Jackson said.

Williams said even if it’s just one person causing a problem that’s still a problem for somebody.

“I hear that number is little but we represent the whole community,” Williams said “So even if it’s just a few people who are being affected by that they’re still being affected by that one house. I see too many things in our community that we have laws for and we don’t have the people and we don’t have the resources to enforce them.”