(Editor’s Note: Melissa Siig is an appointed member of the North Tahoe Regional Advisory Council.)
With the help of Truckee resident Dan Warren and Placer County Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery, the idea of being able to keep hens in residential areas has been gaining momentum over the last few months. In December, Montgomery wrote a zoning amendment that would allow people to keep up to three hens on their property, and the following month the North Tahoe Regional Advisory Council, along with nine other municipal advisory councils (MACs), voted in favor of the issue (only the Squaw Valley MAC voted against it; three MACs did not vote). The Placer County Planning Commission was slated to take up the question on April 8.
However, even if the county eventually approves the keeping of backyard chickens, this won’t give North Tahoe residents a green light. While Truckee residents within the boundaries of Placer County could start work on their chicken coops, Tahoe folks would still have one more hurdle to clear: the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
The TRPA’s code does not allow the raising of livestock on parcels less than two acres.
According to TRPA spokesman Dennis Oliver, the ban on livestock, which implies chickens, is due to zoning and environmental concerns.
‘It’s so we don’t have sheep, goats, and cows running around neighborhoods,’ he said. ‘There is also a huge concern with a large number of livestock about the waste, and with certain types of animals, this affects the soil.’
To make matters more complicated, all of the North Shore’s five community plans and multiple plan area statements in Placer County specifically prohibit the raising of animals. So even if someone wanted to get an exception to the TRPA code, it wouldn’t work.
‘If it were a special use, you could go to a TRPA hearing officer to get a variance, but because of the plan area statements, it wouldn’t do any good,’ Oliver said.
So what would it take to allow backyard chickens in Tahoe? The TRPA Governing Board would have to vote to amend its code, and each community plan would also have to be changed, which requires TRPA approval. Oliver doesn’t see this happening anytime soon.
‘I doubt the board will want to take time out from restoring lake clarity and updating the Regional Plan to talk about chickens,’ he said.
However, aspiring North Shore hen-raisers shouldn’t give up hope yet. Oliver said that if the Placer County Board of Supervisors approves the keeping of chickens, he could see the TRPA taking up the issue after October 2011, when the Regional Plan is due. This is more likely to happen if there is a public outcry and Montgomery, who is a member of the governing board, brings it to the TRPA.
There is one more ray of light for advocates of homegrown eggs — the TRPA actually has precedent of allowing a Basin resident to raise chickens. In August 2009, the agency granted a permit to a Douglas County man to keep up to 15 chickens, ducks, and rabbits in the second story of a detached garage he built on his property, which was less than two acres. The catch? Douglas County’s plan area statement does not prohibit the keeping of livestock.
It was not an easy process. The TRPA held a public hearing, did an analysis of the site, and a number of conditions had to be met by the applicant, including agreeing to keep the animals indoors and pay a $2,518 water quality mitigation fee.
‘This is an example of how complicated chickens can get in Tahoe,’ Oliver said.
But even if the day never comes when it’s completely legal to raise hens in Tahoe, residents don’t need to worry about a knock on their door from the chicken police.
‘We don’t want people running afoul of TRPA code,’ said Oliver, pun intended, ‘but usually things like this don’t come to the attention of code enforcement unless there is some egregious violation.’
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