Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Chicken ordinance now on the books

Back To Front Page

 

By KEVIN NEVERS

With neither a cluck nor a squawk, the Chesterton Town Council has made it legal to keep backyard chickens.

At its meeting Monday night, members voted unanimously to approve the chicken ordinance on final reading.

That ordinance now allows folks who live on lots of a half-acre or smaller to keep chickens under closely defined conditions:

* A maximum of four hens--but no roosters--are permitted.

* They must be kept in a securely enclosed rear yard, in a coop with a minimum area of 10 square feet per chicken.

* They must be provided with water and feed all the time.

* All supplies of feed must be contained so as not to attract vermin.

In November, a resident of the 2000 block of West Porter Ave., Marcus Key, asked the council to amend Town Code, under which it had long been illegal for anyone but 4-Hers to keep chickens in town on small lots.

As Member Jim Ton, R-1st, noted on Monday, the ordinance was not written for slapdash hobbyists. “Even a casual reader will realize (hen-keeping) is not a cheap venture,” he said. “It would be an expensive venture. And we hope a humane venture.”

Coffee Creek Center

PUD Amended, No. 1

In other business, members unanimously approved an amendment to the planned unit development ordinance governing Coffee Creek Center, under which certain changes were made to its original signage, landscaping, curb, and elevation provisions to facilitate the construction of a 7,750-square foot, 106-bed transitional health-care facility, to be located on the east side of Village Point Drive roughly 500 feet north of Gateway Blvd.

Mainstreet Property Group is developing the project and has said that it will create 100 jobs.

A public hearing on the PUD amendment was held last week by the Advisory Plan Commission, at which Katie Rizer, executive director of the nearby Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve, said that her Board of Directors supports the project.

The PUD amendment came to the council with the planners’ unanimous endorsement.

Coffee Creek Center

PUD, Amended, No. 2

Members also approved a second amendment to a Coffee Creek Center PUD, this one permitting the installation of additional signage at 3100 Village Point Drive, where Lakeside Wealth Management spent around $1 million to finish work on the top floor of the Duneland Dialysis Building. The firm and its 40 employees now occupy that space, from which Lakeside Wealth Management is hoping to expand its Midwest footprint.

The amendment specifically allows the addition of two single-sided signs, each 62.4 square feet in area, to be fixed to the building’s northeast and southeast corners.

Planners also held a public hearing on this petition last week. No one spoke in opposition to it. Rizer spoke in favor of it. Planners then forwarded it to the council with their unanimous endorsement.

Council Member Nick Walding, R-3rd, who is an employee of Lakeside Wealth Management, abstained from Monday’s vote.

 

Posted 12/23/2014

 
 
 
 

 

 

Search This Site:

Custom Search