Schickel: Mistake to bring chicken ordinance changes so quickly to Mason City City Council

MASON CITY — Mason City’s mayor says it was a mistake to bring to the table so quickly proposed changes in the ordinance dealing with the keeping of chickens in Mason City.

The council two weeks ago passed the first of three readings to update the ordinance which would have dropped the number of chickens someone could keep on their non-agriculturally zoned property inside the city limits from 25 to six. That’s the number allowed by many other similar-sized communities in Iowa.

Bill Schickel says he takes responsibility for the item being on the agenda two weeks ago, saying it was a mistake to bring it forward.  “One of the most important job of the mayor, our staff, and city administrator is deciding what will go on the agenda, and I get an advance look at the agenda, and I frankly didn’t see an issue with that early on. I should have realized that this is a concern for a lot of people. We’re an agricultural community, we have a very large and active 4-H here, and it’s an important issue. I’ve got neighbors right up the street from me that raise chickens, and that’s a wonderful thing.”

Schickel says the council desires to have a well-balanced approach to any changes and is looking to incorporate the concerns of the public. “This was a good-faith effort on the part of our city staff to address some of these concerns, but that should have been workshopped first. We need to hear from all the constituents first, all the people who have various concerns, and then come up with a good solution. That’s why we pulled back on it. When we make a mistake, we try to correct it. That was a mistake, we’re fixing it.”

A workshop session to receive public input and further discuss the issue will be scheduled in the future.

Schickel made his comments on the “Ask the Mayor” podcast, which was published earlier this morning