Chicken debate comes home to roost again in Saukville

Proposed state legislation that Saukville officials thought might settle the long-running debate over keeping chickens in the village has died in committee, putting the hot-button issue right back in the hands of local leaders.

Last month, the Village Board tabled action on a proposed revision to ordinances that would allow residents to keep a limited number of hens on single-family lots to see if proposed state legislation that would have prevented municipalities from prohibiting the keeping of as many as four chickens or quail on residential lots passed before the end of the legislative session. 

It didn’t, and on Wednesday the Saukville Finance Committee and Village Board were to revisit a debate now in its sixth month.

Initially, officials hoped that Tuesday’s election would help steer its decision, but they later learned that the advisory chicken referendum they intended to put on the ballot was not allowed under state law. 

They quickly dismissed a community survey that would have cost an estimated $12,650 dollars and last month seemed to be at odds over how to proceed with a request filed in September by Tim Schwister and his mother Barbara Schwister to change village ordinances to allows chickens to be kept in the village.

The problem with the request, Village Attorney Brad Hoeft told the board last month, is that it seeks to change village ordinances that are not part of the zoning code.

“The issue I have with this is that it takes the potential regulation of poultry out of the zoning code, and that’s a concern from an enforcement standpoint,” he said. “We have a lot more authority and options ... through our zoning authority.

“I can’t recommend approval of this.”

At least some trustees, however, seemed open to the idea of revising the Schwisters’ proposed ordinance to make it more palatable.

“I think everybody was under the assumption that we all agreed this wasn’t going to be approved as is and that there were some things that needed to change,” Trustee Pamela Duckart said. Duckart previously said she and her husband Jesse Duckart, who is also a trustee, favor allowing residents to keep a limited number of hens in the village. 

But Village President Andy Hebein said it is not the job of the village to rewrite proposed ordinance changes.

“I don’t feel it’s the responsibility of the board to continue to iterate and continue to draft versions of this,” he said. “We have people come to this board all the time with petitions and we don’t keep writing and editing them, and in this case I feel like that’s what we’re doing.

“I think it sets a precedent that we should be concerned about.”

Pamela and Jesse Duckart then suggested the board consider the chicken ordinance proposed in 2021, noting the village spent considerable time refining that proposal, which was also submitted by the Schwisters, before rejecting it.

Hebein, however, said the latest proposed ordinance change, not the one from 2021, is the issue before the board.

In an interview after the March meeting,  Tim Schwister said he is frustrated by the board’s reluctance to decide the chicken issue.

“It’s an easy decision to make, but it seems they (board members) are fearful to take action,” he said. “They just don’t want to do it.”

The debate over chickens in Saukville has unfolded as the Village of Belgium considered allowing chickens, then decided against it last year. The City of Port Washington received a request last year to allow chickens but has yet to consider it. All municipalities in Ozaukee County except those two and Saukville allow chickens, and in some cases other fowl.