Phillip Weinrich, of Truesdale, is seeking changes to the city’s ordinance regulating chicken ownership.
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This story has been updated to reflect that the Feb. 12 Truesdale Board of Aldermen meeting was canceled due to winter weather.
Phillip Weinrich, of Truesdale, is seeking changes to the city’s ordinance regulating chicken ownership. The city planned to hold a public hearing on the ordinance before their Feb. 12 board meeting, however that meeting was canceled due to winter weather.
The ordinance, passed in 2023, sets the guidelines for chicken ownership in the city, and the Weinrichs have said they feel it is unnecessarily stringent.
The ordinance allows for residents to keep up to six hens with several stipulations.
The birds must be kept in a coop that is reasonably constructed without temporary materials and the birds must be kept at least 30 feet from any other coops, 25 feet from any property lines and 100 feet from any neighboring residence. Residents are also required to purchase a permit from the city for $25 once they have proven they can accommodate the ordinance.
When the Weinrichs purchased their chickens back in August, they had no idea there were laws regulating the birds in Truesdale, according to Phillip.
Last month he got a call from the city asking him if he had a permit for his birds.
“I said no, I didn’t know I needed one, because we just got them and never knew anything about (the ordinance),” said Phillip.
He was in attendance at the Jan. 22 Truesdale Board of Aldermen meeting where he requested a variance to keep the chickens.
Aldermen allowed him to keep the birds, at least for the time being, and tasked him with researching and drumming up support for changes to the ordinance.
Alderman Kari Hartley was open to feedback and making changes to the ordinance but said he was wary of establishing a precedent that the city’s laws do not have to be followed.
“I just don’t want to start a precedent of ordinances aren’t followed, and then we have to keep granting variances for people after the fact,” said Hartley.
Aldermen tasked Weinrich with reaching out to residents for feedback to drum up support for changes to the ordinance.
Phillip, and his wife Shelby, compared Truesdale’s chicken ordinance to neighboring municipalities like Wright City and Wentzville and felt there was a significant difference.
Wentzville’s ordinance requires setbacks of 10 feet from any property line and 25 feet from any neighboring residence. Wright City’s ordinance requires that chickens be kept at least 50 feet from any neighboring residence.
Phillip said they plan to approach the board and “just come up with what everybody else around us has and be like, nobody is this extreme, especially if Wentzville is not even that extreme on the distances.”
He did clarify saying he agreed with the ordinance’s limitations on the number of chickens and requirements for their care and cleanliness.
The Weinrichs hope they can convince board members to decrease setback requirements, otherwise Phillip said they will relinquish the chickens to a family friend who has space at their property.
