If you want to keep chickens in Atwater Township, you better have a farm. After a public hearing on April 27, township trustees rejected a resident’s bid to allow chickens in subdivisions, where lots are smaller than an acre.
“If you let everybody in that subdivision have six chickens and coops, you’re going to have chickens all over the place,” Trustee Peggy Bainey said. “You’re going to have a stench that’s unbelievable. There’s no room to do something like that. They’re farm animals. It would be inconsiderate.”
It would be impossible for the township zoning inspector to enforce the measure, Bainey added.
About eight residents attended the hearing, and all of them were opposed, she said. No one spoke in favor of the measure.
Current township regulations require anyone keeping chickens to have five acres.
Flamingo Motel
Trustees also heard from Wayne Hershberger, who presented his plans to buy the recently condemned Flamingo Motel on Waterloo Road.
Trustees informed him the building is full of mold and is good only for being torn down. Undeterred, Hershberger spoke of perhaps using the building as a storage facility.
Hersherger has until the next trustees’ meeting on May 25 to come up with a set of plans detailing exactly what he wants to do with the former motel. Trustees also advised him to check with Atwater’s zoning department and county officials to see if a storage facility is even an allowable use for that property.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.