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Medford may take another crack at chicken limit Ten-year-old Seth Davis tries to capture a chicken roaming around his family property on Cherry Lane in east Medford Tuesday. [Mail Tribune / Andy Atkinson] Tuesday Oct 24, 2017 at 11:01 PM Damian Mann Mail Tribune @reporterdm Regina Davis' ongoing flap with a neighbor over her 15 chickens on two acres helped prompt the Medford City Council to place a six-chicken limit on parcels within city limits. The 36-year-old Cherry Lane resident said she and her husband bought their property to raise their own food and teach their children the value of self-sufficiency and sustainability. "What really frustrates me about this situation is that a citywide ordinance is being changed based on inaccurate information from a single angry citizen," Davis said. The council earlier this month passed an ordinance limiting the number of chickens in a backyard, in part because of Davis' situation and a code enforcement complaint from one of her neighbors. The ordinance takes effect in January. One of the complaints was that Davis had 50 chickens, two pigs and other animals on her property. Medford police Sgt. Don Lane said the most recent complaint to Code Enforcement was about odor and noise on the property, but there wasn't an ordinance limiting the number of chickens, so police didn't cite Davis, and the case was closed. Davis said she's had up to 20 chickens, never 50, but she did have two pigs in the barn for a two-week period prior to an FFA showing at The Expo. She said she no longer has a horse or turkeys on her property, located above North Phoenix Road. Armed with this new information, Councilor Kim Wallan said she wants to take another look at the chicken ordinance, possibly considering a sliding scale depending on the size of the lot. When the council held a public hearing on the ordinance, it received no testimony from the public, she said. "It would have made a huge difference to the ordinance if she would have come," Wallan said. "I wasn't a real fan of the ordinance at all, because we had just gotten the one complaint." The Cherry Lane property was referenced in planning documents the council relied on in considering limiting the number of chickens for each property in the city, Wallan said. "I think it was only one property and one constituent who had complained about this property," she said. Davis said she plans to attend the Nov. 2 council meeting to make the case why more chickens should be allowed on larger properties, particularly in more rural areas of Medford. She said it would be a blow for her family not to have the chickens, which keep pests down and help fertilize their organic garden. "It's important for us to teach our kids responsibility and to focus on chores and not on the screen," Davis said. "The educational value is important to us, as well as the health benefits of free-range chickens." Having 20 chickens is also important because the egg-laying capacity of her hens varies from season to season, with far less production in winter. "Whenever we have an abundance of eggs, we share them with our neighbors," Davis said. "We're a family of six, and we make scrambled eggs with 18 eggs in a batch," she said. "My boys can eat a lot." Davis cited a study that indicated if 2,000 households raised three hens and fed them with table scraps, it could remove 252 tons of waste annually that goes to landfills. The Davis family bought their property in 2013, and at the time, it had a rural residential zoning. In the meantime, the zoning was changed, limiting the use of the property for farm animals, Davis said. Councilor Michael Zarosinski said he did receive a complaint from a neighbor about Davis's property, and he suggested the neighbor call Code Enforcement. However, he said the new ordinance isn't about Davis' situation or the neighbor's complaints. "None of this is about one person," Zarosinski said. "It's not about one property. It's about a community standard for chickens." He said the city, including the Planning Commission and City Council, looked at creating a reasonable ordinance to limit the number of chickens based on other ordinances passed in other cities. As to Davis' situation with her neighbor, Zarosinski said, "I don't want to get into the neighbor dispute." — Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476 or [email protected]. Follow him on www.twitter.com/reporterdm.