Ballwin Board Squashes Urban Chickens

The Ballwin Board of Aldermen will not move forward with plans to permit chickens as pets this year following discussions in Ballwin, Ellisville and throughout the area regarding chickens as pets.

The Ballwin board considered adopting legislation modeled after the City of Creve Coeur, , recently permitted chickens on residentia properties. After sporadic discussions about legalizing urban chickens, a majority of board members including Aldermen Shamed Dogan and Kathy Kerlagon opposed the idea.

Dogan said he heard from a vocal minority of supporters for chickens as pets, but not enough to win his support.

"As you can imagine, those people were really passionate about it, but a lot of the feedback we have gotten on the city has been negative."

Alderman Kathy Kerlagon agreed, saying she had sent out informal polls to residents via email and the vast majority of the 27 responses she received opposed the idea.

"So I will be voting no on this," Kerlagon said.

The ordinance the Ellisville City Council allows residents to have up to four chickens, excluding roosters, so long as the birds are housed in coups that meet dimension requirements, are permitted, and meet other housing criteria set out by the city.

The Ellisville law also requires owners to have the space their chickens are housed in inspected annually by city staff, which is preceded by a $10 application fee each year.

Despite considerations earlier this year to adopt similar legislation locally, Mayor Tim Pogue said chickens don't belong in Ballwin. The board later agreed not to pursue further legislation on the issue, with Alderman Mark Harder dissenting.

“If I wanted to live with chickens, I would live in the country," Pogue said. "If I asked a kid where would you find chickens, he’d say on a farm, not in Ballwin. I would be very upset if I came home and I had chickens in my neighbor's yard. I didn’t decide to live in Ballwin to live next to chickens.”