Item - 2012.LS11.2

City Council on November 29, 30 and December 1, 2011, referred Motion MM14.8 to the Licensing and Standards Committee.

In response to a growing local urban agriculture movement and desire by people to have greater control over their food supply, an increasing number of municipalities across North America have removed restrictions on the keeping of hens in urban areas. The cities which have modified their regulations include Vancouver, New York, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Kingston, Ontario.

The experiences of these cities have highlighted that residents can successfully keep a limited number of hens in their backyard in balance with the need to maintain the community’s quality of life by establishing appropriate regulations that govern potential issues such as noise, odour, separation distances, selling of eggs, and waste disposal.

In Toronto, there are a number of residents who wish to keep hens in their backyards for the purposes of producing eggs for personal consumption but existing by-laws prohibit the keeping of chickens in Toronto. Backyard hens can be kept in a safe and appropriate manner that limits the potential for nuisances and public health concerns and City Council should give consideration to allowing residents to legally keep hens.

Therefore we recommend that City Council direct staff to prepare a report outlining a strategy that will allow residents to keep backyard hens in a safe and appropriate manner.

(Submitted to City Council on November 29, 30 and December 1, 2011 as MM14.8)