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Palm Coast council agrees to continue backyard-chicken pilot while staff drafts ordinance
Summary
After months of a pilot program, Palm Coast council gave staff direction to finalize a permanent backyard-chicken ordinance while maintaining the pilot. Council asked for specific guardrails on inspections, enforcement and permit caps and directed staff to return with a formal ordinance and related changes.
The Palm Coast City Council on Oct. 14 agreed to continue its backyard-chicken pilot program while staff prepares a formal ordinance, directing several specific changes to how permits and enforcement would work.
Council members, code enforcement and animal-control staff spent more than an hour reviewing the pilot’s results and public feedback. City staff reported 23 applications were submitted to the online portal that launched June 18; two expired before final inspection and 21 permits were finalized. The pilot originally authorized up to 50 permits; some council members proposed raising the cap to 100 but council settled on keeping the 50-permit cap while finalizing the ordinance.
Council members said the pilot’s low uptake suggested residents are hesitant to apply while rules are unsettled and asked staff to use the remaining pilot period to identify and fix process problems. Code Enforcement Manager Barbara Grossman said most staff time was used to follow up with applicants to complete online forms and schedule inspections. Animal-control staff described a small number of complaints focused on noise and fencing; inspectors have worked with residents to bring coops into compliance.
During the discussion council members requested several changes staff should include in the draft ordinance: require notice before non-emergency inspections (no blanket warrantless-entry language); add stepwise enforcement (warning and a short cure period rather than immediate confiscation in routine violations); clarify rental/lease rules so property owners can sponsor a renter’s application; and include standard appeal/revocation procedures. Councilmember comments also asked staff to preserve property-rights protections while mitigating nuisance risks for neighbors.
Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri reported she had been named the council liaison to ongoing conversations with Flagler Humane Society and local rescue groups and said the city was still searching for potential shelter sites; she asked staff to come back with more information in December. Several council members asked for clear public-facing application instructions and for staff to examine the online portal’s usability, which had required repeated resubmissions for at least one applicant.
Council direction: staff should continue the pilot while drafting a formal ordinance for council consideration, keep the permit cap at 50 (rather than automatically expanding to 100), revise the inspection and enforcement language as directed, and return with a draft ordinance and recommendations at a future meeting (staff indicated December when other items will be presented). The council did not take a formal roll-call vote but reached consensus to proceed.
The city will maintain the pilot rules (permit fee, required coop setbacks and screening, and inspection prior to final permit) while staff redrafts the code language and drafts the formal ordinance for future readings.
