ROCK SPRINGS –– The Rock Springs City Council is poised to decide on allowing residents the ability to keep chickens within city limits during its meeting Tuesday evening.

Chickens in city limits have been a repeated topic for the city throughout the past decade and prior initiatives to open the city to allowing them have failed before different Councils. 

While a vote won’t occur until Tuesday night, some Council members told SweetwaterNOW they are thinking about voting against the measure.

Councilman Randy Hanson said he’s considering voting against the initiative because he doesn’t see allowing residents to raise chickens as something that would benefit Rock Springs overall. He said emails he’s received and discussions he has had led him to believe more people oppose the ordinance than support it.

He said a few residents would benefit from being allowed to raise chickens, but said people living in wealthier neighborhoods in his ward have voiced opposition to the ordinance. He said older neighborhoods in his ward might have people interested in raising chickens, but the homes in those neighborhoods are more tightly arranged and could lead to irritation between neighbors over chickens. He questions if approval of the ordinance would also create situations where residents don’t completely follow the regulations being proposed. Citing his time in law enforcement, Hansen said while there were people who would do everything they were required to 

Hansen said people opposing the ordinance told him they didn’t want to go to the Council meetings to speak, saying he was elected to represent them. 

Councilwoman Jeannie Demas also said she is thinking about voting against the ordinance. For Demas, the concern comes with the owners who won’t take great care of their chickens. She said the city’s animal control department already deals with pet owners who don’t care for animals the way they should and sees chickens being another animal that animal control officers will need to address, even if the proponents of the ordinance would care for their birds perfectly. Both Hansen and Demas said the city’s animal control department will need to be updated to handle chickens as well.

With funding cuts on the horizon due to legislative bills cutting property tax collection, the question of how the city could afford to make those upgrades becomes more important for the Council to consider.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Rock Springs City Hall. The meeting will be streamed on the city’s YouTube Channel. A full agenda can be found here.