NEWS

Councilman crows about roosters

Posted 6/21/22

By EMMA BARTLETT

The sound of roosters crowing at dawn may have been a handy alarm clock back in the day, but for current Bryant Road resident Richard Nawrocki, the rooster in his neighborhood is …

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NEWS

Councilman crows about roosters

Posted

By EMMA BARTLETT


The sound of roosters crowing at dawn may have been a handy alarm clock back in the day, but for current Bryant Road resident Richard Nawrocki, the rooster in his neighborhood is constantly waking him up and it’s not an enjoyable sound. Nawrocki came before the Ordinance committee Thursday to voice his support for a new rooster ordinance that councilman Richard Campopiano brought to the table.

There have been several extensive chicken/rooster ordinances that have gone before the council but have not passed. Campopoiano’s ordinance proposes the following: “each homeowner is permitted to keep one rooster in a coop and fenced in an area on their property no closer than 150 feet to the dwelling of any abutter.” As for enforcement, “the building official, building code enforcement officer or their designee is responsible for enforcement in accord with this section and all other applicable sections of the Code of Ordinances.”

Campopiano told the council he’s received calls from every ward – with the exception of Ward 6 – of people being disturbed by roosters in the morning.

“This has been an ongoing problem since I came to the council nine months ago, and it’s kept me up at night thinking of these people being disturbed in the middle of a densely populated part of the city,” said Campopiano.

Council President Chris Paplauskas agreed with Campopiano – saying he has received calls from many wards across the city concerning roosters and thanked the councilman for proposing an ordinance.

Councilman John Donegan said he fully agreed that roosters shouldn’t be in densely populated areas but struggled on how that should be written in the code since there are various wards and areas of wards where roosters should not be allowed. He asked Campopiano came up with the 150 foot distance.

Campopiano said he didn’t want to go too far and exclude everyone but wanted to be far enough where he thought it wouldn’t be a nuisance and keep the roosters out of the inner city portion.

Councilwoman Aniece Germain said she had an issue with the 150 feet because the number did not come from an expert.

“This matter is too important to be based on what we think and we should really have the expert so it doesn’t come up again should the ordinance pass full council and there still be issues,” said Germain.

Paplauskas said if the 150 feet isn’t enough, the council can always go back and change the number which has been done with other ordinances.

Campopiano said he was called out on social media for not having a spot for the roosters to go and mentioned there are rooster sanctuaries like Seven Acres Wood in Harrisville, Rhode Island, which accepts roosters, and there are also several locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Resident Marie Monti came out to support the ordinance to ban roosters in residential neighborhoods. She presented the council with a petition of names of residents in the neighborhood who are in support of Campopiano’s ordinance.

“We have them on our street; they’re terribly annoying at 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock in the morning,” said Monti.

Councilwoman Nicole Renzulli, who previously co-sponsored a chicken ordinance with councilwoman Jessica Marino, added her support for the ordinance.

“150 feet is not too much to ask,” said Renzulli. “You have plenty of room to put your rooster farther away from someone else’s house.”

The ordinance will now go before the full City Council on June 27.

roosters, ordinance

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