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Two members of the public spoke during the Windsor Town Council’s Nov. 12 meeting and requested that a local law be changed to allow greater latitude for the possession of chickens within the town limits.

Raye Lin Klepac, who lives on Twin Circle, addressed the council during the Public Comment period.

“I am here tonight to request the ordinance be changed for the chickens in the (town) limits,” she said. “I moved out here last year, and I was under the assumption of moving out here to a rural area (that) I would be able to have them.”

She said that to her surprise, she found that a resident would have to have five acres within town limits to own chickens.

“I am backed up to wetlands, I have plenty of space for chickens, setbacks would not be a problem,” she said. “I have here the draft for the ordinance back in 2017, and that’s the last it was brought up, to request to have this changed. I’m requesting a review of it so that we can have (chickens) in the city limits.”

Windsor Mayor George Stubbs thanked Klepac for her comment and said, “We’ll take that into consideration.”

Justin Hensley, who also lives on Twin Circle, was the other member of the public to speak during the Public Comment period on Nov. 12.

“I’m basically just mirroring what my neighbor was saying,” he said. “I moved here under the assumption that I’d be able to have chickens in such a rural town. 

“My parents are able to have a horse in their backyard, and they live in Newport News within the city limits,” he continued. “So I was just really surprised, a little disappointed, honestly. I hope that council can rule on this to allow us to have chickens again.”

In conclusion, he said, “I think the memorandum that my neighbor has brought up is a good fit for the community.”

During a Nov. 18 interview, Councilman Walter Bernacki acknowledged the comments from Klepac and Hensley, stating that they were reviving a previously made request to look into a residential chicken ordinance.

“Obviously that’ll be something that I’ll have to probably jump back into and help investigate, research,” he said, noting that he will see what such an ordinance would look like and what the residents bringing it up are thinking. “And then can we come up with something that is mutually beneficial for everybody.”

Bernacki elaborated on factors that helped make the subject of a residential chicken ordinance a matter of discussion in previous years.

“Before… I understand and I can’t verify it, but there are people currently that have chickens at their residence in Windsor,” he said. “No one’s obviously called and complained about it, because responsible people will take care of things, and it’s not an issue. But I think that the ordinance just kind of puts some safety measures in place that, ‘Hey, in case of this or this or this, we’ve got some recourse to resolve issues if they come up.’ And so I think it would be a good fit for everybody.”

He referenced Klepac and Hensley’s frustration that they moved into the town thinking it is a rural farm community that would broadly allow chickens only to find the restrictions on having them to be greater than those found in cities like Newport News.

“And they do bring up a good point, as was brought up the last time the ordinance was brought up,” Bernacki said. “So we’ll just see what happens moving forward, and we’ll go from there.”