City Approves $1 Million+ in Community Support
But, Will the Chickens Ever Come Home to Roost?
by Anne Mooney / April 12, 2020
The City Commission met in a special session April 8 to discuss the City’s coronavirus response and to approve funding assistance for Winter Park residents during the shutdown. The City has partnered with the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce to come up with the following measures.
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- $25,000 donation to Second Harvest Food Bank for Winter Park residents. For information about receiving food or making donations go to feedhopenow.org
- $75,000 donation to Feed the Need Program for Winter Park residents. Beginning April 14, free meals will be available at the Community Center on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 3:00 to 5:00 pm, while supplies last. Walk up or drive through.
- $50,000 in direct and matching funds to Residential Utility Bill Assistance through Heart of Florida United Way 2-1-1 program. If you are a utility customer who needs assistance, you can do a virtual chat with a 2-1-1 representative by going to HFUW.org/Chat
- Suspension of late fees, interest payments and service disconnects for water and electricity until further notice. Customers can contact Utility Billing customer service at 407-599-3220 for flexible repayment options.
- An Electrical Fuel Rate Holiday resulting in reductions in total residential electric bills for the month of May 2020.
- Free WiFi at Central Park and Shady Park.
Micro-loan program
Also discussed was a micro-loan program, jointly funded by the CRA and the City, for Winter Park small businesses that are struggling. Although $250,000 in matching funds was budgeted, there is no clear path to implementation.
To put this program in motion, the City is banking on help that may be hard to get. Lacking the necessary skills and manpower to administer a loan program, the City had planned to enlist the support of a local bank or banks for their lending expertise. The banks, however, are stretched to the limit administering unwieldy State and Federal assistance programs. The demand is overwhelming, leaving the banks without the capacity to assist the City. In addition, the City’s $250,000 contribution requires a matching donation of locally-raised private funds – and this is a difficult time for anyone who’s had the courage to look at their 401(k) lately.
According to an April 10 Press Release from the City, “Details for this program are still being finalized and will be presented for CRA Board approval at a future date.”
Fowl is Fair
The last attempted chicken coup was in 2016, when the Keep Winter Park Beautiful and Sustainable Advisory Board proposed a Backyard Chicken pilot program. The plan called for City Staff to issue temporary permits and work with each permit holder to assess how well the program would work in Winter Park. That plan never hatched.
Now, despite the success of other well-established urban programs and passionate pleas from local residents for a few backyard hens, the response from the other four Commissioners is tepid. Mayor Steve Leary agreed to bring the subject up for discussion at the April 13 Commission Meeting, but only for discussion, not as an action item.
Weaver acknowledged that Backyard Chickens may seem like a small thing in the face of a global pandemic – unless you’re an egg-lover who has left the Publix egg aisle empty-handed. In these days of limited social contact, many people are turning to their own gardens for sustenance, and a couple of hens could lay enough eggs to provide some much-needed protein.
So, if you run into a Commissioner who’s on the fence, you might consider egging them on to cross the road to support Poultry in Motion.
Chickens, chickens, chickens is all I’m hearing about these days. Everybody wants chickens for eggs and garden insect control. Here’s my response: I, or one of us, will bring this up. We do have an overarching issue now with the pandemic, but backyard chickens (“hens,” that is) will be addressed.
I am in favor of allowing a pre determined amount of residents in Winter Park to have a few chickens. Roosters are loud and can disturb a whole neighbor. Using a common sense approach this is a great idea.
At the April 27 Winter Park Commission meeting, Commissioner Cooper correctly summarized the issue by stating that chickens are farm animals that do not belong in the backyards of Winter Park homes. The Mayor also expressed the valid concern that chickens attract predatory animals that attack and kill chickens and their eggs (which I can verify is true from my relatives’ backyard chicken experience). In addition, many backyard chickens will die from owner inexperience and neglect. A short unaccredited online course will not make resolve these owner shortcomings.
From The Coalition standpoint, if this proposed ordnance does pass (and in my opinion it will only pass out of respect to Commissioner Weaver and not because Winter Park needs or wants chickens in their back yard), that the Ordinance must also state that “All animal attacks on any chicken must be reported to the police with 48 hours and that upon confirmation of said attack, the permit granted to that household will be immediate and permanently rescinded and the remaining chickens, chicken coop and all related chicken items must be permanently removed from the property within 60 days of the date of permit rescission” (also the necessary technical language regarding fines per day if the said removal is not accomplished within the 60 days plus the payment of the full cost of the City inspection to ensure that the removal has been accomplished))
Concerns about backyard chickens were sent to Commissioner Weaver on April 25 prior to the April 27 Commission meeting, Commissioner Weaver responded the same day in an email to me that:
… “Very little staff time is being spent at present on the backyard hen initiative, nor would they in the future. That was done years ago. Our Keep Winter Park Beautiful and Sustainable Advisory Board recommended backyard chickens unanimously. If or when we do adopt an ordinance, it will basically be exactly like Orlando’s, with “Winter Park” replacing “Orlando” in the document. In meetings with Orlando and Maitland officials and staff, the staff time needed to support such a program is minuscule” …
The April 27 Commission meeting showed Commissioner Weaver’s claim that “very little time” and “minuscule staff time” will be spent in the future on the backyard chicken initiative proved to be untrue. An extraordinary amount of April 27 Commission time was spent on listening to Commissioner Weaver’s extensive power point presentation on the backyard hen initiative and prolonged follow-on discussions amongst the Commission and the City Manager which resulted in the backyard chicken proposal being sent back to the Advisory Board for further review. It appears that the only reason this proposal was not immediately quashed by the Commission on April 27 was out of respect for Commissioner Weaver. Though I appreciate the Commission’s sentiment, spending additional: Taxpayer money, Advisory Board time, City staff time, City Attorney time, City manger time and City Commission time only to help Commissioner Weaver (in the The Coalition’s opinion) “save face” is not what The Coalition would call effective government.
The Coalition for a Farm Animal Free Winter Park respectfully requests that Commissioner Weaver accept the Commission majority sentiment that backyard chickens are not a good idea for Winter Park and that Commissioner Weaver immediately withdraw his proposed Chicken Ordinance so the City Commission, the City Manager, the City Staff and the City Attorney can go back to focusing on the real issues facing Winter Park during these uncertain times.
Thomas Masselink
The Coalition for a Farm Animal Free Winter Park
The City should contact Commerce National Bank and Trust to assist in their lending initiatives. They are not participating in the current SBA loan programs and are a local business that could assist the city.
Good write up, Anne We may hatch something here… cluck cluck