Flagler Beach Kills Backyard Chickens Proposal as Commissioner Who Suggested It Joins Opposition

Flagler Beach will not allow backyard chickens after all. 

Commissioner Rick Belhumeur proposed the idea in July at a constituent’s suggestion, causing the city attorney to draft an ordinance. Belhumeur wasn’t alone in killing the proposal last week (it was unanimous), but he gave it the coup de grâce. 

“I went to Pensacola to see Ursula’s daughter,” Belhumeur said Tuesday evening, referring to his late wife, “and we were sitting outside in the breezeway chatting, and I heard this ruckus. I said what’s that noise? She says they’re chickens.”

Pensacola has allowed backyard chickens since 2012. The city allows up to eight hens, no roosters, and allows them to free-range on a property, as long as it’s enclosed and set back 30 feet from any adjoining property. Palm Coast launched its pilot program in July. It allows just four chickens per coop (or per property), with numerous regulations. The city is making 50 permits available. 

The proposal drafted by City Attorney Drew Smith for Flagler Beach mirrored current municipal ordinances, particularly Palm Coast’s. It recognized the value of chickens as pets and as producers of fresh eggs. 

It would have enabled a two-year pilot program, allowing just five permits during the two-year period (it is likely that more than five properties currently have unlicensed backyard chickens now), for a $50 licensing fee. Those participating would have had to abide by numerous regulations, and to allow inspections. 

In Pensacola, the chickens Belhumeur was hearing were two houses down. Belhumeur stood on a deck in back of the property. “I’m looking over her fence and over another fence,” he said. “So people at a house 300 feet up the road, 200 feet up, had chickens that were so loud that you couldn’t talk. I’m sorry. I don’t think too many people in Flagler Beach are going to want chickens next door.”

Belhumeur told a similar account to his commission colleagues last week. 

He heard similar reservations from his colleagues. “When this first came up before the commission, I was leaning in favor of a test program that was being contemplated,” Commissioner Scott Spradley said. “Since then, I have heard essentially one voice from the community, and that voice is No, and I hear that on a regular basis. There may be some who support such a program. But those who have contacted me one way or the other are not in favor of it, so that will reflect what my view of it is currently.” 

Commissioner Eric Cooley was glad of his two colleagues’ turnaround: he’d opposed backyard chickens from the start. The issue recurs every couple of years, he said, and every time it does, the public response is “absolutely not. They don’t say maybe, they don’t say anything in between. They say, this is not what we want.” 

Cooley said it’s not about the specifics of the ordinance. “This is not what we want,” he said. “Being that we have all these people that have lived here without it, to make a change to how folks live and what they have put up with and tolerate, it just wouldn’t be the right thing to do.”

Mayor Patti King, in complete agreement, said the area was not “appropriate for wildlife,” though neither people who raise chickens in their backyards nor Smith’s draft refer to chickens as “wildlife.” 

Lou Pincus, a Flagler Beach resident, lives next door to a property with chickens and has been complaining about it to the city. He did so again last week. “No, it’s not pleasant living next door to somebody with chickens,” he told commissioners. “Yesterday, I had them in my driveway. They’re free running around in the woods up by the gopher tortoise burrows. Last night on my security camera at almost midnight, it was amazing. I got a notification, and I looked at the video, and there was literally five to seven raccoons crossing my property, heading right for the chicken coop. I know that this person’s been in violation of the ordinance for at least four months now. I’ve been pretty darn upset about it.  It’s been affecting our peaceful enjoyment with not only the clucking at 6:30 in the morning. They’re noisy and them kind of just running around, I see them feeding by the wetlands, which really drives me nuts. ”

It’s not clear why the city has not addressed the matter.