The topic of owning domestic chickens will make its way to the Essex council meeting this evening.
One individual will be attending to present to council asking that a by-law be put in place to allow chickens in urban areas within the Town, with rules and regulations to be in place to ensure the safety of the chicken owners and residents.
However, another resident has already submitted a letter to the Town stating that residents are concerned with the attraction of wildlife - such as skunks and foxes - if domestic chickens were to be allowed.
Essex mayor, Sherry Bondy, says in urban areas chickens aren't allowed, but they often get complaints from residents that some homeowners do have chickens in their backyards.
She says this topic has been discussed at the council table numerous times.
"I'm sure it's going to be an interesting discussion, I know other municipalities have talked about it in the past. And I think it's just time for us to have the discussion and say 'hey, do we as a council and community want to investigate this more? Or no, we don't want to investigate it more'."
Bondy says she believes there will be direction for administration to investigate how this could or couldn't be done.
"Do we want to have say chicken licenses, permits, do we want to maximize the number of chickens, or do we not want to do it at all? I think this one you hear a lot of public feedback and it seems pretty 50/50, but the reality is right now a lot people already have chickens."
She says chickens are not allowed in urban areas.
"As it sits right now some people do, and it's primarily complaint driven. If a neighbour hears your chickens, doesn't like your chickens, or particularly people have roosters - they're really loud and can cause a ruckus. So, that's something that I definitely - if we do go forward and investigate - I hope we don't look at having roosters."
Bondy adds that if a report does come back to council with options for having chickens that there would be a limit to how many chickens residents could have.
Essex council meets at 6 p.m. Monday.
