St. Thomas Council on verge of approving backyard chicken test run

Kay Vaughan gave her stepdaughter a high five in the gallery at St. Thomas City Hall Tuesday.

She was thrilled her plan for a backyard chicken pilot project was all but rubber stamped by council.

“It was a really big, exciting moment for us to say ‘okay, they're kind of on board’,” said Vaughan, a St. Thomas, Ont. resident who has been petitioning for the city to approve backyard hens. “We got seven out of nine votes.”

Council voted 7-2 in favour of staff preparing a report, which would involve all the details surrounding a pilot project to allow less than a dozen residents to have chickens.

“The report's asking for some details,” said St. Thomas Councillor Gary Clarke.

“It would be around the limits of the number of people involved in the trial run, the number of years (probably two or three years), how far away from property lines, the number of chickens, no slaughtering, no roosters. It’s all the details we'll come up with based on what other cities are doing,” added Clarke.

Kitchener and Niagara falls are among the 26 cities in the province that allow backyard chickens.

Unless something stunning comes back in a staff report, most councillors seem ready to make St. Thomas the 27th city in Ontario.

Councillor Lori Baldwin-Sands was in favour after claiming she was an egg producer for years.

“It is an increasingly growing trend,” said Baldwin-Sands. “Food security is top of mind for me… and the work and commitment is very minimal.”

Councillor Steve Wookey said he would be in favour, but wants all of those details from staff and by-law officers.

“Who is going to be doing the inspecting in the city and do we need more training?” asked Wookey. “Our officers are very busy, and I just want to look at it from the staffing side in terms of training.”

Councillor Clarke and Councillor Jeff Kohler voted against the idea.

“Some votes you win, you lose others,” said Clarke. “I just thought that there was too many negatives to it and that remains to be seen.”

In her backyard, Vaughan has plans to convert her kids’ former treehouse into a coop.

This April 12, 2023 photo shows St. Thomas, Ont. resident Kay Vaughan. She plans to convert her kids’ unused treehouse into a backyard chicken coop. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

“We're actually going to repurpose all of the wood and remake a really nice [coop],” said Vaughan. “All of our kids and myself all love to do painting, so we're going to repaint it all once it's all built. It will be off the ground and be ergonomic so it will be easy to clean it and get the stuff out. The hope is to bring it all the way down up against the fence a little bit for them to have a little area to run in and be free range.”

Vaughn said with five kids, and her family eating eggs everyday, “It makes sense” when referring to today’s economy.

She also wants to teach her children about the importance and responsibility that goes with raising chickens.

Vaughan said she put in her original proposal, that if there was a pilot program, that they would be considered. After conversations with some councillors, she expects her family would be one of those accepted.

The report is expected to be finalized in time for a future council meeting.