Recommendation to request City Attorney to bring an ordinance within 30 days to amend Title 6 of the City’s Municipal Code based on previous draft language developed in consultation with members of the community, Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine, Office of Sustainability and City Attorney’s office.
Communication from Vice Mayor Lowenthal, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Council Councilmember Superman and Councilman Andrews. Recommendation to request the city attorney to bring an ordinance within 30 days to amend Title six of the city's municipal code. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to turn this over first to up to Vice Mayor Lowenthal, and there may be some staff comments as well. So Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to thank everyone that has provided comment and sent in emails. I'm curious, Mr. Mayor, do you want to do our comments first or public comment? What do you think? If you wanted to yell, if you wanted to, at least make your motion. Make the motion, and then we can. Yeah. Let me go ahead and make the motion first to go ahead and approve staff recommendation. And we have a second. So I do want to thank everyone that's provided their emails. I've received comments from friends in the animal care community who are passionate about the humane treatment of animals. I've also received concerns from residents worried about the impact of these animals upon their neighbors and the burden of enforcement. And of course, we've received support from residents who already own or wish they could own these animals for a variety of reasons. I believe that everyone's hearts are in the right place about animals. There are a number of reasons why my colleagues and I wish to reconsider this issue. And when I say reconsider, we have taken this up. I don't know how many years ago, but certainly it's been several years. So we have brought this forward for several reasons. Two, for reconsideration. One, it fits into our healthy and sustainable lifestyle city goals. It's a social justice issue, which I know Councilmember Gonzalez will touch upon. There's great interest from residents wishing to be closer to their food source. When we look at the trends across not just our country, but if we just focus on our country, we are less and less trusting of of where our food is sourced. And so to provide residents an opportunity to source their own foods is something that's also very fitting in with our culture here in Long Beach. And frankly, I don't see any major difference in the responsibility from that we currently expect from our domestic animals, such as dogs and cats. And we have an expectation of those owners that we will continue to have in our series of expectations from owners of any other type of animal. It is worth reminding everyone that our municipal code allows residents to own up to four large breed dogs in any size lot with no setbacks. We expect owners to clean up after their cats and dogs whose waste is arguably more impactful than chickens and goats. And we will have that same expectation. We expect owners to feed and maintain their animals. That's not just the Long Beach way. That's just the humane way when we enter into pet ownership. And why should owning chickens or goats be any different? And these are questions that we're getting from residents challenging, adding these animals to our ordinance. And I think what we'd like us to all consider is why would it be any different? We already have enforcement codes in place for irresponsible animal owners. You'll hear from our staff later this evening to share with you the intense level of research and work they've done on this issue. Looking at what other cities are doing, not just in in Southern California, but across the country. We should expect the same type of responsibility from owners of any pets, whether they be dogs, cats, chickens, goats, be owners. And if they don't, they should be reported to animal care services for enforcement. And I think you see that our animal care services staff is very responsive. We've also heard that because there are bad dog owners or bad cat owners out there, we shouldn't allow residents to own chickens, goats and bees. And I think that's a very unfair, broad brush that we cast across across the canvas and one that I think we should be careful not to do. That's those two can be mutually exclusive. The attached ordinance reflects best practices that protect neighbors, animals and personal property, while providing residents with appropriate sized properties and facilities. The opportunity to pursue a particular lifestyle. A lifestyle that's in keeping with our city's efforts to encourage healthier eating, active living and sustainable practices. I think if you look at all of the progress we've made in our city over the last decade, one thing that we can all say that is a theme about the efforts that we've made is one toward healthier eating, active living and sustainable practices. So I have a few slides that I'd like to share with you on what the proposed changes are for each animal. The first one is the slide on the current what we have currently for chickens. And as you can see with the current ordinance, you can have up to 20, up to 20, maybe kept at least 50 feet away, 50 feet from one in two family residences or 100 feet from multi-family residences, which are with three or more or hotels. One chicken may be kept as a pet at least 20 feet from any dwelling, and there's no permit or inspection required. If we advance to the next slide, you'll see what's being current, what's being proposed in this ordinance. So the proposal is that up to four, maybe kept ten feet from neighboring residents. No inspection or permit required five to. And maybe kept at least 35 feet from neighboring residents requiring permit and pre inspection. 11 to 20 may be kept at least 50 feet from neighboring residents residences, requiring permit and pre inspection and a proposed permit fee of $20. One time pre inspection cost would be approximately $63, and that's one hour worth of an officer's time. The chicken shall be adequately fenced within an outdoor enclosure to contain the chickens on the property to prevent, escape and provided with a shelter to protect from weather and predators. Outdoor enclosure must be a minimum of ten square feet of permeable land per chicken. For goats. If we see what the current is, we do allow one. No more than one may be kept at least 100 feet from neighboring residences. They may not be kept south of Anaheim Street. And no permits required. With the proposal, what we have is that you may have to only may be kept ten feet from neighboring residences. Must be permitted annually by annual animal care services. And must be microchipped. Food products are for personal consumption only. Male goats must be neutered. Decent. Scented. And enclosure must be a minimum size of 250 square feet of permeable land for two miniature goats or 500 square feet of permeable land for any other combination of miniature and non miniature goats. Adequate shelter must be provided within the enclosure to protect the goats from predators and the elements. And then we would be removing the location restrictions. We'd be removing the restriction that we currently have. Which states? South of Anaheim Street only. And here's how the setbacks for the dwellings would look. And Mr. City Manager Which staff member do you have? Pat Westwood Staff Member Do you have that might address any of the questions? We have Ted Stevens and George Chapman could address anything. Okay. I just wanted them to be seated in case there were any questions either from us or for the public. So when you look at the dwellings, you can see where the clearance from the adjacent dwellings must be and where the boundaries are. When we look at the allowances for up to four chickens or goats, which is ten feet, 5 to 10 chickens, 35 feet, and then 11 to 20, and that's 50 feet. For bees. What we have currently is that hives must be kept at least a hundred feet from neighboring residences and public ways, streets and alleys. And they must be kept ten feet above the ground. Under the proposed ordinance. What we have is of up to four hives may be capped at least ten feet from the property line. There'll be no city permit requirements, however. Any person desiring to keep bees must provide the city's Animal Care Services Bureau with proof of their registration with the County of Los Angeles and the hive entrances need to face away from or parallel to the nearest property line, and hives must be either screened so that the bees must fly over a six feet barrier, which may be vegetative before leaving the property or be placed at least eight feet above the adjacent ground level. And a water source for bees shall be provided at all times on the property where the bees are kept to discourage bee visitation at swimming pools, hose bibs and other water sources on adjacent public property. Public or private property. And before I close, I wanted to I'd like to ask my co-sponsors to add two friendly amendments. One is to remove the D horning requirement from the goat section and add the food products or for personal consumption only to the chicken section as well. And with that, Mr. Mayer, those are my comments for right now, and I thank my colleagues for their consideration. Thank you, Vice Mayor Lowenthal and Councilmember Darrell now. Okay. Thank you. And we accept those. All right. Accept those amendments. And what I'd like to do is. Just defer to my other. Colleagues. I originally brought this proposal forward as a member of the Sustainable City Commission, and I think the year was 2011. But in those days, our job was to advise the Environmental Committee. I think. Now they advised directly. To city council. So I don't think there's anyone who's heard more testimony on this than myself, possibly Vice Mayor Lowenthal. So I'm well versed on on the topic, but I'd like to hear. From the other. Council colleagues at this time. Thank you. Thank you. And actually, the council member, you actually probably want anybody here has more more experience and have heard testimony on this issue. As chair of the Sustainability Commission before coming to the council. So thank you for that. And Councilwoman Munger. Yes. I have really enjoyed getting to hear some of the stories from our neighbors in the fifth District who currently host chickens, and then also working with the members of our community garden and others who have neighborhood gardens who really understand the need for more bees in our community. I've been really impressed with the beekeepers of Long Beach during my time here as a council member and previously as a neighborhood leader. And the strong work that you've done to preserve the beehives that are available because the extermination of bees has been very difficult. So very difficult on our environment and very difficult on our agriculture as a state. And so I look forward to moving the city forward in a direction of urban agriculture. Thank you. Council member Andrews. Yes, thank you. Mayor. First of all, I'd like to thank the vice mayor for asking me to sign on to this item. You know, I think that this is a small number of people that have actually got the idea of the urban farm. And these individuals have been very responsible. You know, on the social, economic standpoint, you know, it's really hard for you know, it's really hard for families to even keep food, you know, on their tables, in their opportunity for this family to have fresh and affordable food. So I think an item like this could really help all of us if you really choose to get behind it and see what we're trying to do. Because fresh food, you're talking about your health, you're talking about everything and what would be better way to do it than grow it yourself. So I really want to thank you, Vice Mayor, for allowing me to sign on with this item. Thank you, Councilmember Durango. Thank you, Mayor. Originally, I had a whole ton of concerns about this item here because there were a lot of questions I had regarding licensing and and the number of animals that could be kept in one location. And those have been those are being addressed. I'm glad to see that. But I still have a few, if you don't mind my asking, in regards to those that require inspections or inspections, I know they're going to be inspections in terms of the facilities where they're being kept. But are there going to be inspections regarding public health issues, such as checking that the animals that are there aren't carrying some kind of disease or other kinds of airborne pathogens that might infect other animals? And then we have a crisis in our hands. So is there a a an item in there that addresses the public health concerns that that this is this may arise? Vice Mayor, did you want to add to that? I wanted to I wanted to thank the councilmember for raising that issue. I failed to make in my remarks when discussing staff and and their enforcement that public health aspect, just as we would with whether it's a dog owner or a cat owner, that is part of the inspection. We have Mr. Nelson Cur here, city manager, is that correct, as well as Ted Stevens? Yes. To answer the specifics of that question and Mr. Mayor, if I may also add one more thing, which there is the setback slide. If staff could also address after answering Councilmember your longest question, which I think also speaks to your earlier comment. This looks like it's easy to accomplish in terms of setbacks. And if you could articulate how very difficult it is to find many, many properties that would actually qualify under certain setbacks, 35 feet doesn't sound like a lot, or 50 feet doesn't sound like a lot, but it really is when we're talking about setbacks from other properties and if staff could work that into their response, I'd appreciate that. Well, it's like I said, they're airborne pathogens. They're going to it's going to happen or they do happen. I agree with the setbacks. I mean, I have no issue with that. I the the the threshold for people to meet these requirements is is very high. I can see that still, there's the concerns about noise due to concerns about the the the possibilities of one or two animals getting contracted to something and then taking it elsewhere. And then might while we wait for staff or staff's going to respond to it, you know, there's waste that comes with this and there's a concern, you know, there's there's there there might be some biohazards as a result of having these animals. I mean, there's waste that's created from that. Is there a disposal concern there in terms of how we get rid of goat waste and chicken waste and those types of other ways that that would be caused by having, you know, animals or these kinds of farm animals in in neighborhoods. I can I can go ahead and answer part of that mentioned the silver to answer the the larger part of the question. Maybe our animal care team can can weigh in just to address one piece of that. I think that from the it's my understanding that there this would work very there'd be very similar inspection process. In fact, I think more stringent in this case as to how the animals would be permitted, particularly if you have larger amounts for they would go through an inspection process. The county does that with there's a process for bees in the county of Los Angeles, and we would have something similar here for whether it was goats or whether it was chickens. It's my understanding, too, that from a waste perspective, these animals actually produce usually less, less toxic and less damaging waste than would in our dogs and cats that we have. And certainly from a. And so certainly I think from a waste perspective, I think that's also that could be addressed. But those are about very valid concerns. I want to make sure that staff answers the councilmembers larger question about that, things about inspections and waste and. Theft. Who wants to go first? Well, for as far as the animal care services, the health aspect of it would really wouldn't be something that we would enforce on our own. We would be more concerned about the setbacks. And I think the way we did the setbacks were the more animals you had, the more potential impact. That's why we increased the setbacks, especially for, like, the chickens. And so if you just wanted to have a handful of chickens, we wanted to make it easy for people to have a small number of chickens, assuming with the assumption that there'd be less impact, less issues. And then if you wanted to have larger numbers of chickens, we would require the inspection. And during our inspection we would be checking mostly the shelter, making sure that the shelters adequate, making sure that the enclosure is adequate, making sure that there's enough land, permeable land and enough setback. We've Nelson can talk about the health issues. I think there's there's basic sanitation issues that are in the ordinance. If they if they comply with the ordinance, I think we're going to avoid most of the problems. Having said that, your health department routinely tracks on any types of diseases that may be impacting food or may be impacting animals. And the health officer has broad authority under state law to address those issues. So if we need to address those issues, we could address those. But we have not seen that issue here. Okay. Thank you for that response. Also, there was an item in there saying that it's for personal use. Is there something that you know, in case there we have these owners that want to sell their product or want to share their product with neighbors or anyone else and perhaps taking their products to a farmer's market, for example . Is there any item in there enforcement about that appearance of taking their products to market? We were sharing it in a restaurant. Yeah. The the ordinance that was proposed did have a requirement that the goat's milk or anything produced from the goats was for personal consumption only. But that was limited to the goat section. There was there was no restriction on the honey or the eggs from the chickens. Okay. And I have one more one more item that I want to add. You know, just like we have with rabbits, you know, all the time around Easter, we have a of an overflow of rabbits that people take home to the kids. They find out they're are too expensive to to support. And then they end up being abandoned, i.e. Lonely City College with their rabbit rabbits. Or they they take them back to the to the animal shelter. Is there going to be an additional cost or additional cages that might be needed to to support the influx of, let's say , an overpopulation of goats where a an owner might have over bred goats or chickens or whatever other animal that might be out there. Are we prepared? Do we have a plan? Staff. What? We. We haven't had any issues with any goats coming in. Not. Not yet. We do have resources. We do have some rescues that we work with now. We do get we get a handful of chickens and roosters every year. Not a lot. It's it's around in like the thirties or forties a year now. And we have no trouble getting those replaced in in farms, in areas out in the Inland Empire and areas like that. So we have resources for what we have coming in now. And I imagine if we had some goats come in, we could probably call on those resources for that as well. Okay. That's all ahead. Mary, thank you. Oh, council member. Urunga. I'm sorry. I just wanted to make clear regarding the goats and the products from the goats, the milk and the cheese is strictly. Prohibited from being distributed. Outside of the home or outside of the personal use. They are it's clear that they are not to distribute that, whether giving it away, selling. It at a farmers market. Or any of the above. So that's that was our concern and that's in the ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. And I believe that one of the amendments by the vice mayor added that chicken products would be prohibited except for personal consumption. So the way I understand that amendment, it would read similar to the amendment for the gold products that you would not be allowed to sell it, donated or otherwise distributed to any other person . Yes. Thank you. Next up is Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I have a few questions as well to staff or is somebody able to provide any sort of background on the historical justification that was provided for the north of Anaheim language? How did that come to be? Okay. Council councilman super not is willing to offer a historical perspective if staff isn't prepared for that. Sure, Mr. West. Larry Rich will be here for that one. By the way, when you get called to do a historical perspective, it doesn't mean you're old and knowledgeable. Mayor Members of the City Council. I was actually we were all very curious about that Anaheim boundary, and I did some research on it and found that that boundary changed over time. About 100 years ago, it was actually at Fourth Street, and then it went to Seventh Street and then to Anaheim. And this is for different animals, but chickens. The the boundary dropped, but for goats it was retained. So we think that it was a means of estimating the more urbanized areas of the city. So it's kind of an old figure. And I guess that's what I'm curious about. Is there something about goats that are unique to this? Urban agriculture that makes that would justify. Some sort of separate treatment based on geographic location. Is it a noise issue? Is it a waste issue? Is what what what would it be about goats? I feel like in the past it was considered more of a straight farm type animal and needed to be outside of the more urbanized areas. But that perception has changed, particularly with the keeping a miniature goats, which you know are the size of a small dog. And so I think miniature goats didn't really exist in the city 50 or 100 years ago when when, you know, those perceptions were dominant. In regards to the to the setbacks. I know Vice Mayor Lowenthal touched on that briefly, and I think staff was attempting to are there different areas of the city where we think the setback, limitation or regulation would make it difficult for folks to engage in urban agriculture? For example, in some parts of the city, it's very densely populated, like in Belmont Shore. I can't imagine that we would have a property. It would be very rare to see a property that would have the sufficient setback because it's from the coop to the residents. The adjacent residents, correct. Yeah. Or the actual enclosure, the. And the coop. To. The residents. Okay. And so have you done any sort of analysis to see whether or not there are parts of the city that lend themselves more to the space that would be required to have urban agriculture with these setbacks in mind? So Councilmember, I did that sort of research using the city's G.I.s early on in this process. And it's true, and it's what you would expect that, you know, small areas of the city with smaller lot sizes, for example, Belmont Shore and Naples are much, much in larger built out houses, leave much less area remaining on that lot to make these situations allowable. So in truth, there will still be cities where it'll be difficult, if not impossible, to meet the distance requirements. But I think the feeling was the 50 foot distance for chickens across the board that exists makes it difficult to keep chickens almost anywhere in the city except for where there are larger lots . So we were trying to level that a little bit. Is there any sort of analysis that's been done in regards to the range of property that an individual would have to have in order to allow the operation of either the goats or the chickens with the setback requirements like the number of square feet that would be required as far as yard space. Sure. The the minimum requirement for an for the enclosure of ten feet per ten square feet per chicken. That's an easy calculation to make then. So, you know, for to keep four chickens, you would need 40 square feet of enclosure. So, you know, whatever those dimensions are, they may or may not fit in your yard within those setback areas. And so obviously a larger number of chickens, in addition to the required setbacks, also require a larger enclosure area. And so, you know, there's a balance in there that needs to be met. So the setback requirement changes based on the number of the animal. Is that right? Correct. So there's a three set back distances based on the three, you know, 1 to 4 or 5 to 10 or 11 to 20. Okay. But then there's an additional sort of floating calculation based on the maximum number of chickens you could keep in your enclosure based on that ten square feet per chicken. Okay. In regards to the question that Councilman Urunga raised, which I think is a really good one, do we have any sort of legal definition for personal consumption? And you know what? What are our concerns, if any, that, for example, if one were to consume it in the home and offer it to a guest, let's say, and it was contaminated or something was wrong with it. What what sort of safeguards do we have? I mean, is the legislative intent behind this that personal consumption is limited to the owner of the animal and or his his or her immediate family members. Or vice mayor members of the council. The the current prohibition allows for food product produced by live goats shall be for personal consumption only by members of the Permittees household. So if you had guests that's clearly covered under this it's it's meant to prohibit distribution of the product in this case from the goats and or now the chickens to you can't sell it. You can't give it away, you can't donate it or any other use for it except at home. There's no proposed change to that. Then. As the only proposed changes, the addition of chickens to the prohibition. Okay. I want to talk about bees. Again, I'm sure staff has done the research and you're the experts on this. This is really unchartered territory for me. So I'm looking for some education here. The the biggest. One of the biggest. Set of emails or email categories that our office has received over the last week has been a fear of bee stings. Can you talk to that at all in regards to a hive being in an adjacent property? I'm sure there's all sorts of research and and data that talks about bee patterns and their flight patterns and such . Councilmember. So I looked into this quite a bit early on as well. And so the first thing to understand is that the bees are already out there, meaning our city is full of both wild hives and domestic hives. And bees visit any property that has flowers where, you know, so whether or not your neighbor has a bee hive, if you've got things the bees went, they'll be on your property. So having a bee hive next door doesn't necessarily increase the chance of a negative interaction with bees, particularly if you're following the guidelines that are set as part of the ordinance language that directs their flight away from the nearest property line. Okay. In terms of the can you explain to me the justification for the height requirement of the bee hives? What's the scientific purpose for that? Do they not fly down or. Well, so the original the existing ordinance that talks about beehives needing to be ten feet above the ground. That was initially a little bit of a mystery about why that would be the case. But we think that it was because since bees have a pretty lengthy range for the size of insect that they are, they can go 2 to 3 miles away from their hive to to get what they need in terms of forage. They fly up and fly a far distance at a higher altitude. So the idea is to get them to, immediately upon leaving the hive, fly at least six feet above ground, and then they don't come back down again until they're at the place where they want to forage. So that keeps, you know, bee interactions with people at a minimum because they're, you know, start off at a higher altitude, if that makes sense. And in some ways that would provide a safeguard to the adjacent property because they're probably not going to exit the hive and take a nosedive down. And that's correct. Okay. What other cities are you aware of in the region that have this type of ordinance? And are any of the ordinances in nearby cities comparable to ours in terms of setbacks and number of animals, etc.? So we did a lot of that research, too, although it's a couple of years old at this point. There's a little bit of everything out there. There's very permissive cities. There's very restrictive cities. Long Beach kind of fell even with its existing rules kind of in the middle. But some recent some examples that immediately come to mind is the city of Los Angeles actually allows a number, unlimited number of chickens with only a 20 foot setback from the neighboring home, which was really surprising and even to the point that Los Angeles, the city of Los Angeles, by right, allows one rooster per lot, which is not even part of our roosters, are prohibited in Long Beach now and would continue to be so. So that's an example of a nearby city, a very large city that has very, you know, relaxed chicken keeping rules, you know, and it varies from these different three animals are in the bees where, you know, many cities just outright prohibit. Bees are silent on them. There's been some recent efforts by other neighboring cities, Santa monica being one of them. And actually the city of Los Angeles just recently has legalized bees, if you will, or that's going through that process. So at various cities, at various points in the last four years, a lot of relaxations of these rules have occurred. One of the ones that we looked at most closely and was most recent was the City of San Diego. That actually a lot of our proposed ordinance language is drawn from what happened, what was enacted in the city of San Diego in 2012. And I recently checked in with them just to see if they made any changes to it, what they'd enacted based on issues. And they said they hadn't, that things are pretty quiet out there in terms of there being problems or enforcement problems. In regards to the costs associated with enforcement, if any, to staff, feel pretty confident that given the amount that is going to be charged for registration of the animals, that staff can recover whatever enforcement costs that it would need in order to enforce any against any complaints or allegations of of misuse of this ordinance by a neighbor against another neighbor. Yeah. I mean, we we currently and have always got in a very, very, very small percentage of calls for complaints for chickens, roosters, not very small. Number four, goats, two or three and very even less for bees. And most of those complaints are related to roosters which are illegal and will continue to be illegal. I don't I don't foresee, you know, our complaints rising to a significant level that would impact our operations significantly. And just out of curiosity, if if you do get a call from a complaining party regarding a rooster, what would you do if you went to the location and found a rooster? Well, what we do now is we will make contact with the animal owner, let them know that it's illegal, and then we generally give them a set amount of time to rehome the rooster, or if they need assistance, we can assist them with that. But generally they got it from somewhere or they have somewhere to take it. We haven't had any issues with having to impound a bunch of these roosters generally that people are able to find a new home for it. Okay. And then just going back to the north of Anaheim. Language that we it seems a little bit mysterious, a distaff feel that there's any. Based on the research that you've done, any sort of justification that would warrant maintaining that limitation to north of Anaheim? In terms of goats specifically. I didn't see when it was kind of a broad brush way of, just like I said, thinking that this portion of the city was a more urban area where farming activities was no longer appropriate. And we felt that it was arbitrary and that the more specific distance requirements covered the the true variety of different lot sizes and levels of urbanization that actually do exist south of Anaheim. So, you know, it's not as urban and homogeneous as, you know, it's completely apartment buildings. There's a lot of variation. So places that can meet the distance requirements that are south of Anaheim should be allowed to keep those animals. Now into another complaint or concern that we've received from residents and again, it's I worked at Isabel Patterson Child Development Center. I was a preschool teacher there back in the day, and we had goats. And I don't recall specifically other than the fact that they would eat our clothes while we were standing there. I don't recall anything specific regarding the waste or the the sounds that the goats made. But some of the concerns that we've gotten from residents over the last few days has been the concern that goats are louder than chickens, for example, or that their waste is potentially harmful. Can you speak to that? Know. My understanding of goat waste is that it is less likely to have odor since goats are vegetarians, you know, they eat everything, but they are not likely to eat meat. And so and their waste is directly able to be used as fertilizer. Same thing with chickens, you know, you put it in the compost. And so it's not something that needs to be thrown away. That could be an odor issue as long as it's not piling up and staying in one spot, which is something that good animal keeping practices would would prevent and address in terms of goats being louder than other animals. You know, I just want to share something from personal experience, which is in the neighborhood that I moved into in Los Altos. I would hear a sound at night that I wondered if it was a goat. And I tracked it down over the course of weeks. And it was turned out it was someone's cockatoo in a house for houses down. And it was making this very sort of goat like sound. And so, I don't know, that was an accepted thing in the neighborhood. I don't think that goats are any louder than that, which is something that apparently is allowed and it was actually in someone's home as opposed to, you know, in their yard. So, you know, there's videos that are out there about screaming goats and all this sort of thing. I don't think that a pair of goats, which is very intentional in these rules. And we drew this from the city of San Diego. Goats are social animals, so they they want to have a buddy with them. And that helps calm them and keeping, you know, keeps them from needing to to make noise. So I don't believe that they're any louder than a dog barking would be. So that might just be a myth. Regarding I mean. The myth that that goats are louder. I believe so, yes. In regards to can you explain to me a little bit and I think the vice mayor made a friendly that involved the horning or de horning. Could you explain that a little bit to me and educate me a little bit on what that is and what does that do to the goat? Meaning the previous requirement to de horn? Yes. So I think that that was a pretty common goat keeping practice, particularly when you have more than one goat or you have goat interactions with other animals or kids, that goat horns can be potentially dangerous if they bite you with their horns. And so but there's a other side of that story, which is that Dee Horning is inhumane to the animal and unnecessary. And so, you know, while it had been a common practice in the past, it's, I think felt now that it's less necessary and it puts supposedly the owner of the goat at a little bit of risk that some injury could occur. And it puts more onus on them to keep careful track of their goats and what they're doing and who they might be butting. But again, it's a personal responsibility thing and it doesn't prohibit people from Dee Horning at their option. It just doesn't require them to do so. And so the amendment is to not require. All right. Thank you. Well, Councilmember Price, I would like to just point out that this ordinance doesn't necessarily cancel out the noise ordinance, which the health department we administer that that program, and we would respond to any. Excessive noise complaints and do an analysis on that and address those complaints still. Thank you. And you do a fantastic job of that in all other areas. So I appreciate that. I know our district calls upon you often. So thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I'm just I'm a bit biased on this particular item for a number of reasons. I spent a number of years in my childhood in Alabama, and it was either adjacent to a farm or on a farm. I remember spending time clearing fields for uncles or or helping to tend to cattle. And I can tell you there are tremendous educational benefits from living with nontraditional animals in the urban area. You can learn about, you know, how a egg turns into a chicken or so on and so forth. There are. But at the same time, I've also lived in sort of urban areas that it may be untraditional to have a garden. But I got to tell you, many people in apartment complexes, they wish they could they'd have the availability to actually have a garden. We've always found areas to plant something, whether it's a windowsill or a front yard patch, a patch of a lawn. We just figured out how to do it. So for me, this issue, it's about health and equity. I think all citizens deserve the right to choose what they want to eat and to develop that food themselves. I asked I asked my mom about this issue. And the first thing she said, I said, How do you think I should vote on this? So I supported issue, oppose it. She said, Well, what we buy in the stores is killing us. So you need to support. It as it was pretty. Pretty, pretty straightforward. But that doesn't that doesn't particularly mean there aren't there aren't like legitimate concerns. Like when my neighbor complains to me that my dogs barking too much, I take steps to make sure that my dog is more quiet. If I know that a car driving down the alley disturbs my dog, I bring my dog in at night so they don't disturb neighbors. That's my personal responsibility. And I can tell you, I've you know, my family's had chickens, aunts, grandmothers have ate chickens. And I can tell you, they're no louder than a dog, a chicken. Roosters. However, in North Long Beach, we do have our roosters. And we call we call noise abatement and code enforcement. We make and we we handle that. And I don't think that that issue is going to go away. Roosters in the community, we know how to address it. There are properties that are former ranch properties in the area that still have horses and we've learned how to adapt and how to address it. There is there are a couple of questions that I might have. So I know that last time this came up, there were significant questions and concerns that the council expressed and they weren't able to find consensus and move forward. I want to I want to know, like, has staff addressed those major concerns that the council brought up the last time this brought forward? Or are we simply because I wasn't on the council last time I was a staff person, but I don't quite know if we what measures we intentionally had taken to to improve those issues that were were addressed in terms of like noise abatement. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Councilmember Richardson. I think both all three staff members can address that. The concerns that were raised are ones that we're discussing right now. And I think what we have been able to do is through the staff's research and also commitment to code enforcement and reinforcement of existing municipal code. We've done a better job of instilling confidence in why this is the right evolution of this ordinance for our city today, which I don't know that we did such a great job in 2011. And then certainly when Council member Supernova was on on the on the Sustainability Commission, we learn. So I think what through Larry and Ted and Nelson's efforts, we were able to provide the assurance, as I said, that this because this is no different from any other animal that we would allow residents to have. Our enforcement would be no different in our expectations would be the same. And some of the other issues that came up were more fear based. And I think we've we've discussed that today. Larry, Mr. Rich pointed to the fact that whether there's a beehive next door or not, there are bees abundant in in our community. And thankfully so. Thankfully so. And that's why we have such an amazing landscape of flora and fauna. And and so I think we're doing a better job at sharing with the reality of life in our urban center is and it does include all of these amazing animals. And if if Mr. Rich would like to address that as well, if there's anything specific that came up or even the city attorney that we may have adjusted with this ordinance. I would just say I would agree that raising perception levels and putting more information out there was helpful because, you know, as staff people deeply researching this item, we felt like we were coming up with good policy that balanced everything. But upon hearing this stuff for the first time, you don't. It takes you a while to get there. So just having more opportunity to consider this and hear from constituents that are knowledgeable on these topics, I think helps. Thank you. That makes me a lot more comfortable supporting this. On another issue that that I'd like to just get some clarity on. So there's a story in my family about the pig pit, pig, blueberry and blueberry. My mom and her her brother would play with blueberry. And in one one, one day they came home and blueberry was for dinner. So. So. So my question is, what is our process for consuming our backyard animals, the chickens and particularly the goats? What is our specific steps that are in this ordinance? Mr. Mayor, may I not and I'm so sorry for its loss, but that can be very traumatic. And so what I wanted to ask the city attorney, which I didn't during my comments and Mr. Mayor, if you'll allow me, can we as we do in other ordinances, we refer to existing code that we have. So can we refer it within our ordinance, make a reference to backyard slaughtering and all those things that we have in place today. We have those things in place today. And a new ordinance is. There's nothing wrong with reminding us of that within this. Is that true, Mr. City Attorney That's correct. The problem becomes then if you change in one section and you miss it in the other, you create some confusion and the municipal code goes out of date. But as you stated, currently backyard slaughtering is prohibited except in areas where it's properly zoned and that's under 8.28. And roosters are prohibited in a different section in municipal code 6.20.050. So it's prohibited no backyard slot. Just to be clear, there's no backyard slaughtering. And then my final question is when if we were to adopt this tonight, when with this go into effect? Staff. The mayor members of council councilmen Richard. And the the motion tonight is to request the city attorney to come back within 30 days with an ordinance. So then you would come back, you'd have a first reading, a second reading, and then 31 days after it's signed by the mayor. The ordinance would go into effect. Thank you. Next, we have Councilor Austin. Thank you. And I'm really looking forward to hearing from the public to. We were and thank thank you all for answering most of my questions that I have or asking them. I want to thank most of the urban ag advocates who are here. No, the the the council did not agree two years ago when this came before before us. I raise a lot of significant concerns, a lot of significant concerns that were or they have been addressed here today. And I asked the urban ag advocates, I said. The issue wasn't necessarily convincing the council at the time. It was convincing your neighbors and to to the beekeepers out there to Long Beach Fresh. To my good friend Kelly Johnson in the urban farm stand. I want to thank you all, because you have actually I've seen it over the last couple of years have been extremely active and engaged in at our Carlitos Green growing experience and First Fridays and many other events. You've been out there talking to the public, educating the public, and I can honestly say that the the response that I received prior to this issue coming before this council tonight has been mostly positive. And so I credit the ah advocates who are out here today. So thank you. I'm inclined to support this. I do still have concerns about our goats. I got to tell you, I'm not quite there yet. I'll tell you, I'm like Councilmember Richardson. I didn't grow up in the South, but I grew up in Detroit and most of our folks came from the South and we gardened. Everybody had grow their own greens, their own corn, their own squash and whatever else that we could, we could grow in our backyards. It was comment. My grandfather had a hat a lot full of garden, four foot with a full garden next door to him. And so that I think we need to get back to as a as a as a society, it makes us a lot healthier. I'm really concerned and I'm always concerned with our ability to enforce things. And so I do have a few questions for staff regarding the penalties for not following the ordinance. For example, what would be the penalty for not neutering your goat or not microchipping your goat or for backyard slaughtering? Still the mayor and council members. The the penalties would be the same as we are now. And we would. Go more towards education and getting them in compliance. So, you know, getting them getting the go microchipped, getting them in compliance. Otherwise the enforcement would be the same for anything in Title six, which, you know, $100, 200, $200 and $500. So we have the citation process, but obviously our goal would be education and just compliance. And of course, I'm not advocating to penalize anyone in our society but or our city. But if these these these laws are enacted, I would certainly hope there was there would be some some. So meaningful enforcement if necessary. It also states that that there is no running at large or no goats should be held in the front yards. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. And the microchipping will help. That's why we wanted the microchip, because if the goat did get out and an animal control officer had to impound it, we would be able to scan it and get it back to the owner right away instead of bringing it back to the shelter. So hypothetically, if you found a goat running at large without a microchip, what would be the process? We would bring it back to our shelter, hold it for the couple of days that we would have to hold it and then we would find it at home. We probably a rescue or a farm would reach out to our resources that we have. Okay. And where would would one go to microchip? A goat? Is that a local veterinarian? They could probably have a done a veterinarian. They could do it at one of our vaccination clinics where we do microchipping. We could even offer it in at our at our shelter. Have we had any experience with microchipping a goats? I haven't, but I'm sure our veterinarians at our vets have. Okay. Just I have to ask these questions. It's important. And I do see this as this this whole issue of urban ag and this ordinance as a as a property rights or or an issue of expanding property rights for for our residents. I look forward to hearing from our public. Thanks. Thank you. Okay. I have a few more speakers and we're going to go to the public and take a vote. Councilmember Gonzalez. I know that this has gone through a few iterations and here we are now. It's a really good, healthy discussion I think, that we're having. I will be supporting this item. Of course I'm on the item. I think I want to thank Vice Mayor Lowenthal for her for her diligence in this. I know she's gone through this quite a few years, as well as Councilmember Supernova, who has gone through the process as well. And I will say to the urban agriculture advocates, it's been really great learning from you. Many of you are very educated in this far more than. And I think many of us will be here in the council. And so I thank you for all of your information, your emails, your outreach to your neighbors to ensure that this is a good ordinance for all of us and that it makes sense. And I certainly see this in many different areas. I see this in health and environment. As many of my council colleagues discuss. It is an option for our residents to have healthier food choices, especially in low income, high dense neighborhoods. Much of what I represent in the First District, education for families, but also for the owners to ensure that owners know the proper usage of the proper care for their animals, as well as the penalties and fines should they do something that is incorrect. But for families as well to know that this is an option that is available. But what are what are the nuances of the ordinance? And then lastly, animal rights, of course, and owner responsibility, as I mentioned. So I again want to thank Vice Mayor Lowenthal for including a reference to slaughtering, because I think that's really important. I know it's been discussed many times and so I just will will certainly support this and I think everyone for being here. Back to Councilman Price. Thank you. And I appreciate the patience of the audience. I'm sure you guys all know this, that many of you are in here and you're experts in this field, and that's wonderful. But we have a lot of residents who don't know much about this, and there's a lot of conclusions that people make that are misplaced. So sometimes we're asking questions that seem really super obvious to you, but we're doing it because tomorrow we're going to get calls. And some people might tune into the meeting tonight and reporters might write things and they'll say things like Goats don't make more noise than other animals because we ask the question. So I know it's a little bit, you know, frustrating because you guys know the answers, but you're here because you care about the item. There's a lot of people here who just make conclusions about it and they're not here. So please thank you for your patience and indulging us. On that note, one of the concerns that we've received in our office, because coyotes have been a major issue in our district, is that urban agriculture is going to encourage or attract coyotes to residential neighborhoods. So has staff looked at that? And is there anything you can do to address that issue in terms of any data or analysis that you've done? Staff. Sorry. That was a doozy. I know. Well, I can start off just by saying that it is a concern that these animals need to be protected from predators. And that's built into the ordinance language that the enclosures need to be predator proof. So, you know, there's separate discussions about what attracts coyotes to neighborhoods and, you know, has a lot to do with pet food being left out, pets being left out overnight, fallen fruit, all sorts of things that are already bringing them into neighborhoods. And we believe that a properly secured pen for goats or chickens isn't going to create an additional issue. And that's the key there, that we have a properly secured area for these animals to to be. I might add to that that it's not just coyotes that are predators for these animals, in particular chickens. It's all of the other sort of urban wildlife. Raccoons, possums, skunks. So it's it's vital. Otherwise, you will lose your chickens. Thank you. Thanks for indulging me by answering all those questions. Thank you. I'm going to go to public comment, but I want to make a few comments and we're going to go to the public and then go for a vote. I want to just first say that I'm a big, strong supporter of the ordinance in front of us today. I'm a big supporter of urban agriculture. I always have been voted for it when I was on the council. I talked about it at my state of the city as an important piece of food security, access to healthy foods, access for people that want to have a sustainable city. If you look at all the large cities that are really doing the right thing when it comes to sustainability, whether it's Austin, San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, Saint Paul, Portland, Seattle, they all have one thing in common. They have strong support for urban AG. And I think that what I love seeing in our community is the dozens of community gardens, the urban farms, the the agriculture that's happening. And I think this is really one really nice step that we're taking forward to support what is a very reasonable ordinance, in my opinion. I want to thank all of the urban ag advocates because this would not be happening today if it wasn't for all of you. I have to particularly thank Donna and Long Beach and Long Beach Groves. I see her in the audience. I mean, you've been doing this as you know. You you have been a consistent advocate for this from day one. Back when I was running for city council, you were talking about it. And I just want to thank you for never letting up. And, you know, I know this is a big night for you. And I also want to thank all the other the farm owners and the supporters of of local growing of sharing food. You make our city a better place. And I'm really proud of of what this is. Where this we're at tonight with this. And I also want to thank everyone. It was a big thank you to Vice Mayor Lowenthal for being consistent and thorough and bringing this back. And I want to thank her for for that as well. So thank you all. Thank you for all the supporters. And we'll do public comment. I'm very excited about this. This week's. Hi there. I'm Gabrielle Weeks. I'm actually a second district resident, but I have spoken to many of you guys over the last few years about this issue. The Sierra Club supports it. We ask for your yes vote. We've heard a lot of good questions, a lot of great answers from staff. You guys are just like right there with the answers. So we know exactly what we're voting on and what will happen. The one thing I didn't hear brought up was the price of a goat. The cheapest goat that we were able to find recently looking around online is like $325. So people are going to keep track of their property. They're not going I mean, look at me. I'm carrying my laptop around because I don't want to lose that. So people aren't going to have like goats wandering the streets riding the city bus, although I found an adorable meme of a goat on a city bus. So but I ask for your yes vote. And thank you for all your support from from those of you that I've been talking to about this for years and staff that's done such a great job. Larry's got so many good answers to guide you guys. Thank you, Gabrielle. Next, speaker plate. Mayor John, Commerce City Council. I just have a few questions. Where can you buy a goat in chicken? Do they have, like, stores you can go to or I mean, you can. I just want to make sure that we don't have, like, goat puppy mills or puppy mills for chickens. And there's regulations on the. Absolutely, there's regulations. You can. Another question I have I mean, obviously, it's going to be an extra enforcement for animal control and staff. Have we thought about staff time adding additional bodies. That's been addressed know in the staff report but their staff doesn't believe there's going to be a major impact. Thank you, sir. And also one additional thing has animal control has been trained on how to lasso a goat if it gets out. I mean, I would like to make sure that we have some training on how to capture goat if it does get out. Thank you, sir. And one additional thing I just want to point out, we spent an hour and 15 minutes on goats, chickens and bees and only 3 minutes on our city employees. Have a great night. Thank you. Next speaker, please. A couple of years ago, I think there was a federal law, federal law, federal bill called the Food Safety Act. And under under this federal ordinance, a person can't even give tomatoes away from his from his garden to his neighbor. And he definitely can't sell them. He can't even give them away. And so and so that that information needs to be on your website, above the forward. You know it a very. You know, very, very obvious, you know, remind people of the federal law and where they can get their chickens microchipped and all that. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and esteemed members of the council. My name is Demetrius and I'm a local resident of District two. I'm also the owner of Long Beach Farms, a decentralized urban farm here in Long Beach, with gardens across the city in council districts five, six, eight and growing. I also speak tonight on behalf of Long Beach Fresh, which is the local chapter of the California Food Policy Council. I'd like to express full support of the proposed amendments to Title six of the city's municipal code regarding urban agriculture, with the exception of the new amendment restricting owners ability to share or sell chicken products in a robust urban agricultural environment. The person with the chickens should be able to trade with the beekeeper, and that person should also be able to perhaps trade with the local farmer. I think that amendment seems a little arbitrary to my reading and unnecessary. We at Long Beach Farms believe in food sovereignty and the right of consumers to participate in their own food production, either by growing their own food or connecting directly with those who do. Through our partnerships with the Long Beach Alliance for Food and Fitness, Long Beach Fresh and other nonprofit and corporate groups, we aim to support neighborhoods most impacted by the lack of healthy food access, namely central, west and north Long Beach. As the Council asserted, urban agriculture helps to create sustainability in cities. It also reconnects individuals to their food and mitigates negative effects of urbanization on the environment. Urban agriculture provides local, healthier food choices, creates jobs, and allows us to grow food where the people are passing these amendments will further increase access to healthy, affordable food for Long Beach residents. I believe the amendments are generally well-crafted, with reasonable requirements regarding set back distance from dwellings and quantity limitations. Likewise, I believe that local innovation, social enterprise and promotion alongside meaningful policy changes are all necessary to bring about better access to fresh, healthy and culturally appropriate foods. Personally and professionally, I'm excited about the potential impacts of this policy. For one, it lowers the barrier of entry into the local food economy by promoting local residents right to grow their own food. In this case, we're talking about high value protein sources. And honey, as many as any who have been to supermarkets or farmer's markets know there is a premium charge for clean and trusted sources of eggs , milk and pure non contaminated honey. And. You know, I'll jump ahead on my comments for the time running out. I feel that if we're to grow and raise more of our own food here in Long Beach, we must foster a healthy respect for what we are eating and appreciate the effort it takes to grow it. We are informed in a way that can lead to better food choices in our community. To paraphrase. To paraphrase the great Maya Angelou. When we know better, we do better. This ordinance is based on our collective knowledge of the myriad benefits of local urban agricultural systems and expands our ability to learn more by doing more. Passage of this amendment will allow us to know better and do better. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you. Long Beach Fresh guys are doing some great stuff. Next speaker. Hello. My name is Rebecca Bishop and thank you for your interest in this matter. I live in the third district. My kids go to school, primary school in the third district. I work as a professor of mathematics at CSU will be in the third district. True to my profession, I'm going to look at this quite logically. I wanted to discuss Mr. Jenkins issues with waste, overpopulation, noise, that type of thing. Mostly, firstly, waste. You go to those and you can buy chicken manure for $4 a square foot per cubic foot. Sorry, people actually pay for chicken manure. It's actually more expensive than cow manure and it claims to have ten times as much nutritional value as cow manure does. You certainly wouldn't go into Lowe's and buy a sack of dog manure or cat manure. So you're actually getting something beneficial out of the back end of your chicken that doesn't normally come out of your dog or cat. I also venture to guess that the same people who are going to raise chickens are the same people that have compost bins. And I'm going to put it in the compost bean, which is a glorified recycling bin, which will limit the amount of waste that actually goes out into the city yard for that. Secondly, my basic biology class, this kind of taught me, even though that's not my major, that we're going to have very little issues with overpopulation if we actually follow the guidelines set by it. No roosters means no unexpected chicks. And contrary to popular belief, hens lay eggs that are edible with or without a rooster on campus. Also, neutering of male goats will lead to no baby goats. Right. So I don't think there's going to be that type of issue going on. Noise issues, chickens actually put themselves away at dark and they make zero noise to the night as opposed to like a dog. And you can think of the 4th of July coming up. Right. So from that, there's little sound actually coming out at dark from a chicken. There's little bits of sound coming out when they're laying their egg in the daytime, but that's pretty minimal. Yeah. As an educator and a parent. I absolutely agree with Dr. Lowenthal statement. That this is an opportunity to get closer to and introduce my children to the true cycle of food. The chickens will eat the plants from my garden. The chickens will produce a simple food. They will also produce the manure that gives me a richer soil, that gives me fewer pests in my garden. Therefore, I have to use less chemicals in my garden. The bees will pollinate my garden and will make actually more food for my chickens to turn around and eat again. Thank you very much for your yes vote on this. I'm now going to release the microphone to Henry from the Long Beach Beekeepers. You know, that's great. Thank you. Hi, I'm Henry Kurland. I'm a beekeeper. I'm also president of the Long Beach Beekeepers Club. We have about 140 members, about half of which live in Long Beach. A good proportion of them already have hives. I brought with me a copy of the ordinance that the city of L.A. passed. 3 to 4 weeks ago permitting buyers in urban areas on. Home. Lot's five foot setback, not the ten foot we're talking about here. I also point out that since October, with help of Larry, we've maintained hives over here in the Civic Center. I don't know if you're aware of it. We have two hives here currently. In fact, I brought samples of your honey with me, and I have enough jars for the council members, if you're interested. These bees are very gentle, but they're from feral hives. Our club, a lot of our members to be rescues. We take bees from where they're not wanted and where they've been a nuisance. And we put them where they are wanted in a managed environment. So I encourage you, at least for the B part. And I'm also a chicken owner, not a goat owner, but chicken owner. And I encourage you to pass these amendment. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for all the education you do. All the great public education you do. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Hi. My name is Barbara Sinclair. My information is on file. I'm a resident of the sixth District. But as a proud Rigley member, a resident, I count myself as a resident of both the seventh and the 66th District. As you can probably tell, I'm here for the bees. I'm a beekeeper. I've been a beekeeper for several years. And I got started because of my interest in the demise of the bees and the crisis that we're having with honey bees. And at one point, I decided if I really feel that way, I need to become more hands on. So with Henry and another person from the club as my mentor, I learned how to rescue bees. And I've been doing that as a volunteer free of charge for many years. And at some point, I decided to be a beekeeper myself. Because a lot of us in Long Beach, our bee bandit, we like to call ourselves. So I am very hopeful that you will pass this this change in the ordinance this evening. It takes a special kind of person to be a beekeeper. Most of most people think we're crazy, in fact. But what I can tell you about beekeepers, at least the 150 members of the club that Henry and I founded here in Long Beach is that we are responsible, we are knowledgeable, we are generous with our knowledge. We pass information on to everywhere we possibly can. We go to Wrigley barbecue events. We go to first Friday's. We go to third Friday's. We go to the Green Festival. We go everywhere where they will have us. And what we mainly do there is talk to children who start out deathly afraid of bees and end up being absolutely fascinated by bees. I would like to speak to two issues. One is, as Henry mentioned, there was a change in the language of this proposal from the five foot setback to a ten foot setback. And I have to tell you that bees don't care about setbacks. One foot would be enough for them. They fly truly. They really do. They fly straight up, straight up and then out over the roofs. If if that stopped even, you know, five prospective beekeepers to be able to keep bees, I would be sad. And I see my time is running out. So I want to talk a little bit about eggs. I haven't bought an egg probably in ten years from a grocery store. I buy my eggs from my friends who have chickens from pop up farms with women who have chickens and sell them. I trade my honey for four eggs. I think it would be a crying shame if that part of the motion passed that they were unable to pass those those along to other people. And with that, I thank you and thank you to staff for all the work and I fully support, as do most of the urban agriculture . People here are city workers. And I'm sorry you didn't get more time. Thank you. We have the time's up. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name's Elliott Gonzales. My information is on file. I'm here to speak in favor of everything that was mentioned. I actually wrote the speech, but everybody covered everything I wrote. So I guess I just want to take a really quick second to think everybody who's worked really hard on this over the years. This started grassroots on the ground several years ago by by a friend of mine, Donna, and her family. And we've seen this go through multiple, multiple meetings on the Sustainability Commission, the Environmental Committee. And so I'm really glad to see so much support on this council and in the community and the public at large in terms of education. I just want to let every council member know that everybody in the environmental community is here to serve you in any way that we can in providing information as to what what ways we can become more sustainable. So I want to thank everybody who who is in favor of this issue, and we're looking forward to passing the ordinance. Thank you, Elliot. Next speaker. Yeah. Wendy Aragon with Pet Assistance Foundation. We've been active in this community. Helping people with spay and neuter since 1955. Tonight, we want to go on record of opposing this ordinance for the reasons presented by. Peter and Judy Crumpton. Who has worked, who has voiced concerns about this since 2012 but could. Not be here tonight. What deeply concerns us is does animal care have the budget and staff? To issue the permits. Regulate and enforce the violations of this ordinance. We're afraid that it's a slap on the wrist, the educational approach. Okay, that has value. But we need to have I didn't hear tonight what what are the specific penalties for this? Are there citations like there is with companion animals? These are all issues that were not addressed properly. Abandonment of companion animals were thoroughly aware of. What makes you think this is not going to happen with farm animals? When people are evicted. They have to move for whatever reason. They get tired of the animal, whatever. The goats are of special concern to us. Because of their their needs, their their active, their climbers. The males. Okay. It's good that they. Have to be neutered, but the females have to be impregnated every two years, I understand, in order to provide milk and their offspring can stay on the premises for six months. What happens after that? This animal is. Nurtured. It's like a pet. It's like a puppy or kitten. It's microchipped. But then what happens? It's taken to a dark back alley slaughterhouse somewhere. Is somebody regulating where these animals go. Like we require a transfer permit for puppies and kittens. The rescue people are required that and so. Are the. People who breed these animals in the city, not cats we can't breed, but people. Who do get a permit for breeding dogs. These issues. Have not. Been addressed. We live in a diverse community every day on our hotlines, on our phones, everywhere. We see the abuse of animals. I dealt with it today in North Long Beach, where 20 cats had been abandoned because a man was evicted. Why is it so different? Why is it going to be so different for these poor farm animals? Is it because they're just farm animals that we're not going to have this special consideration. And the need for. The. Regulation. And. Enforcement that is of deep concern to us. Long Beach prides itself in being a safe and humane city for animals and people. Let's keep it this way. By voting against this ordinance, we should not just be thinking about sustainability here. I've heard that over and. Over again tonight. We do not need to open up. Pandora's. Box to more animal misery. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Council. Good evening, Mayor. Council members. My name is Kathleen Irvine. I live at 539 Daisy in the first district. And I want to thank you all for your hard work on this ordinance. I really appreciate the focus and that it was brought back in front of the city council. And of course, I support it. I've sent a letter out to all of you. I'm sure you've seen it. I think, though, that what I want to talk about this evening is, first of all, that perhaps the chickens and goats and bees should not be looked upon as farm animals. They are not here for our slaughter. They're not here strictly for our use because of these small plots and these small amount of animals that are being kept there, really more pets. And to say that one pet is more valuable or one pet will be more mistreated than others is not really correct. There are always people who will mistreat animals and we are not going to stop that by not passing this regulation. The other thing I wanted to say was that I'm currently teaching elementary school children. They're very tiny. I'm in charge of a one acre nature center and garden, and educating them is really important because despite all the verbiage about the environment and everything else, these children are still afraid of things. And one of my favorite things that happened this last year was there were two little tiny boys, and they looked at the garden and there was a tomato plant with a picture of a tomato steak that had a picture. And one of them said to the other, Look, it's tomatoes. And the other little boy says, Well, where are they? And the first little boy says, Oh, they're underground. So there really is a disconnect between what we're telling our children and what they actually experience. And for them to experience bees in the garden of which there are thousands in my garden and to see chickens and all of that in person and relate to it, whatever we're telling them in words is so important. So I encourage you to support this. And thank you very much. Thank you. And Kathleen, I mean, some of the best eggs I've ever had you've given me from one of your chickens. So thank you, Jim. Good afternoon, council members. Mayor Garcia, please do not be swayed by the fear mongering. I'd like to invite each and every one of you council member Iran to please. You have not felt the joy it is to hold a hen in your lap and have little hen time in the afternoon. I'm telling you, it's great. Invite you to come out, check out the chicken condo. Our chickens are spoiled. I heard about a beehive that's close by. We've never been bothered by it again. Don't be swayed by the fear mongering. It's a great experience. I urge you to support the men amendment this before you. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker, please. Hi. My name is Steven. Passmore and co-founder of Long Beach Grows, a resident of the second district. I'd like to address a few of the issues pertaining to goats. As far as abandonment goes. I took a quick look at. Petfinder before I came. The closest goat for adoption is in Arizona. It's just not an issue because they're also very quiet and their waste is. Not an issue. It's it's compost. It can go. Straight on your garden. Appreciate you taking this issue back up. And I urge a yes vote. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Council. My name is Suzanne Stevens. I am a resident of the eighth district. I have called in and I spoke to one of Mr. Austin's office workers who was fantastic, had a great conversation with them. Same with you, Mr. Mayor. I am very, very thankful that this issue is up again. Being a resident of Long Beach, also a professional working in Long Beach, I had the great fortune of being able to teach at Wilson High School this year to. American government. Classes. And I always save local government for last because we always saved the best for last. Where in my household, I'm so. Grateful to see the. Progress and the information being abundantly. Shared and received. From everybody on both sides. It's also very. Encouraging to see the compromises that are. Also being made. I look forward to seeing. What's going to come. I, of course, urge you all to vote in favor for this. And if you do have any hesitancy and questions that are further and answered, the people who are. Involved in this movement are the most generous with their. Time and information. There's nothing more that we. Like doing than bragging. About our and I wouldn't say far medals. Once again, I call them pets. And yet, because. Most of them are. Raised from babies, they're just as beloved to us as our cats and dogs. Perhaps even more spoiled. Because they're the only pets that we have that make us breakfast in the morning. So they actually pay their rent and. Like the dogs. But both they give the best cuddles, both. Everyone gets along in harmony. Just to address one of the questions that Council member Urunga had about diseases, most chicks come from hatcheries already fully. Vaccinated against the most common diseases, especially ones that are sold in stores as well, such as Blacksmiths Corner. If your chickens are not. Vaccinated, they sell vaccines. There. That you can have administered. So there are built in protections for that before you even get them to your home. Goats and chickens are not a cheap prospect either. To do it on the cheap, it's usually going to cost you for a handful of hens approximately around. $500 to get the coop an enclosure built more if you're going to raise them from babies and put all that food into them and things. Like that. So this is not going to be an impulse purchase. I think these are not the sexy new pet to have. They are companion animals, they're beloved. The waste is. Really not an issue that I've ever been aware. Of. Aware of. Also, you know, I. Would also like to get involved in bees. I'm not currently just because I know I need more education and the bee community has been superlative in providing. That as well. And I personally cannot wait to write my check to the city of Long Beach to have inspections and to pay the. Registration. Just like I do every year for my dogs. I'm more than happy to write that check. I will write a smiley face on it. So I hope you continue to have. A good evening and I look forward to being able to speak with you in the future. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Yes, I'm Don Americus with Long Beach Groves and a resident of the second District are mostly up here just to say thank you for bringing this up and for hopefully your positive vote. And thank you, everybody in the audience who support urban agriculture and who have taken this has. Made this their issue. Um, so again, Sue just mentioned the fact that birds. Are vaccinated. When you get them. I have experience with chickens, goats, bees, dogs, cats. I've been bit by a dog. Luckily I didn't contract rabies, which is a serious, irreversible illness if you catch it. I mean, if if if you are bit and you don't know that you have rabies until the symptoms appear. I've been scratched by cats. Luckily, I didn't get cat scratch fever or toxoplasmosis, which are serious illnesses, infectious diseases caused by these animals that we allow in the city. Both dogs and cats are carnivores. These other animals that we're talking about, the chickens and goats are, for the most part, herbivores, except for the few bugs that the chickens eat. So that makes it makes their waste less harmful, less likely to cause some type of zoonotic illness that can transfer to us. And, you know, I can just personally say that of all the animals, the quietest ones are the goats. Um. Uh, you know, when we swarm, you can hear them, right? So the bees and the goats are the quietest. Um, the chickens make just a tiny bit of sound, just. Like a minute or so around when they're. Laying their egg. So I urge you to please vote for this so that us ordinary people who just want to connect with our food system can do so and teach our families about where food comes from. And stay healthy. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. I am Maya Passmore of Second District. Many of you might have heard me speak a couple of times before, and I have a lot of experience with this motion because I've been living with my parents who are really supporting it, and I have experience with goats, chickens, bees and a lot of other things. And I just want to say that. What's better to have something that you just pay for it and it feeds off all the money you give it like a dog. You have to pay for all that and you don't get anything in return but chickens, goats. And because you get something in return for all the money you put into. And since you have to put in so much money into those animals, why would you abandon it anyways? So it has no question about abandonment. They're pets in general, so that's one. And they're really good for family in general. So. I'm pro go and I vote. Thank you. And I'm going to go ahead. And after the. The lady in the back, I'm going to cut the speaker's list off. So I think we have three speakers, which I will cut off. Speakers. Let's close, sir. Hi, my name is Lynne Price and I'm from the eighth District. I would like to thank the Council for once again revisiting this issue. I would also urge you not to give in to the. Fear mongering that fortunately has subsided a bit, and there's only a. Few voices left in the miseducation. That comes out of their voices. About what it is to have. Goats, bees and chickens. First of all, as everybody has pointed out before, the the manure that comes out of both the goats and the chickens can be used in our gardens, which most of us do. But most of us who have these animals also have gardens. I would the only part of the legislation that's being put forward that I don't agree with is the sharing or bartering or trading of eggs. I can understand with the goats and the milk, with the processing that goes involved that there could be. Potential for contamination. However, the egg comes out of the chicken complete in its own little shell. And if we if you were to add that to the legislation. I would hate to see the mayor be guilty of illegally accepting. Chickens for his own. Consumption. So. Once again, I would urge you to. Yes, please move this forward. It's been three, four years now. I think the wheels of government turned very slowly, but I'm. Glad to see that once again, we are revisiting this. And one question that I. Did have for those of us who are grandfathered into this, I have had chickens for eight years. I read in part of the legislation that we're not able to keep them until we have a permit. I hope that you have some kind of. Provision for those of us who have been in compliance this whole. Time and take that into consideration. As. The law stands now. I am in perfect compliance and I just don't want to feel that. Now that this is going to change. Somehow now I have to. Get rid of my birds and then bring. Them back and it's just going to be a major inconvenience. So I hope you take that into consideration. Thank you very. Much. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Joan Scarcella and I'm in. The third. District. And I am. Opposed of keeping the goats, especially, however the. Chickens and the bees. Probably would be all right. But I grew up on a cattle ranch in Montana, and I have had experience. With all kinds of animals and a lot of people. I don't think they. Realize. That there is a lot of care. And to take care of all the animals. You have to. Be very, very, uh, you know. Have food, water. And treat them with respect at all times. And I just. Don't think that there is that. Many. Lots that big enough in Long Beach to. Comply with all of the rules. So I'm against. Especially. The goats and the chickens. However, it's great for bees and gardens. And I agree that any I have tomatoes and pots and everything else. And I think. It's good for gardening. But I'm opposed to the goats especially. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next in our last speaker, please. My name is Standridge Rainey. I live in the fifth District. Everybody's kind of covered everything that I would say to you otherwise. Except for the one issue on. Education and homeless chickens if people can't have them. I belong to a group called Los Angeles Urban Chicken Keepers Enthusiasts, and they are a group of more than 1700 people in Los Angeles and a few members from Orange County. They offer workshops. On what you need to do to be a chicken keeper. We've had multiple workshops taught by veterinarians from the state from. They've come out from San Bernardino and stuff and. They've educated us on keeping the animals healthy and avoiding diseases, avoiding things that they constantly give us updates on things like avian influenza. We were aware that there were problems up in Canada six months ago before it was in the news here. So lots of local chicken keeper enthusiasts were already being very proactive and practicing extra sanitation and biosecurity. We there's lots of education on how to sanitize and make sure you don't bring home something from a different flock. If you go to visit. A friend's house, in addition to that. Maybe once a month or so, somebody who's not a member finds our group and posts that they're having to relocate due to work. They have to sell their house because they're being foreclosed on and they will post that they have a flock of chickens that they. Need to find homes for. Within a matter of hours, if not. You know, a couple days, there's more than six or seven people within the group that step forward and post, hey, here's my phone number, here's my email, contact me. These chickens never stay available for more than a few days, so a homeless chicken is very, very rare. The only ones who might have a hard time finding a home is a rooster. But even then, we have lots of members who live within Los Angeles who would love to get a backyard pet chicken. So the homeless issue with chickens, in my opinion, is nonexistent, especially with groups like ours that educate people. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm going to turn this back over to Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to first of all, I wanted to thank everyone that came here today and those that could not be here. This I'm reminded that we started this back in 2011, and Larry had mentioned this as well as other staff members. We've learned a lot. We've learned a lot in how communities grow and evolve and how we can help people live in ways that they want to live, especially when it comes to healthy lifestyles in a way that doesn't harm others. I think that's that's where I've certainly learned quite a bit in this process. I'd like to especially give my heartfelt, sincere thank you to our city staff. There are a lot of issues they work on many years at a time. This is certainly one of them, and it's one where I've witnessed our staff go out and constantly engage the community not to hear the answers that they want to hear, but to really hear the community. And that's it's a very enriching process. And I want to thank each of you that's here today, as well as all of your colleagues that have put time and effort into this item. Because I know that what you want out of it is opportunity for an improved quality of life for our residents. And that speaks volumes to you. I'd like to thank my chief of staff for his efforts as well. I think he is now the resident expert on goats, chickens and bees. We thought we were urban district representatives, but we've learned a lot. And Brock has stuck with this issue for quite some time. And I would certainly like to thank my council members for considering the issue. And the mayor was very kind when he said, I've been very persistent and I want to thank my colleagues for tolerating my persistence and certainly, again, considering the issue, if I may ask our co-sponsors if they would consider removing the. The item. The second part of the amendment requiring the food products are for personal consumption, only to the chicken section in hearing staff. And I'm again constantly learning. No other city has that in their ordinance, and our city is no different. And so we know that. And I want to be sure that the mayor can continue to get his eggs. I really that's that's what I want to be sure. And that's you're all welcome to bring me some. So now you must bring some things. But if if you are amenable, I'd like to remove that part from from this from this motion. And what I'd also like to share, many of you, especially Councilmember Richardson, had offered that he is the child of farmers and farming family, and so am I. You know, we all find ourselves like migratory birds. We find ourselves in environments that really aren't necessarily inherent to our family heritage. But here we are. And I think what what I heard and was reminded of when Councilmember Richardson spoke is no matter how far away we come from our heritage, whether it's 100 years before us, 1000 years before us, it is still in us to be close to the earth, no matter where we live, Shanghai, Long Beach, wherever it is, as dense an environment as we might be. And there's a book called there's there's a ethno botany book called The Earth Knows Your Name. And this entire discussion over the last four years, I've never felt stronger about the true ism of that and the value of that. The Earth does know your name. And what I hear from residents over and over again is they would like to get a little bit closer to their food source. We don't all have to, but being able to is really important for how we live in our city. And so for that, I'm very grateful for the deep lessons you've shared with me and my staff, and I am very hopeful that we will pass this ordinance tonight. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. And with that, we have we have a motion on the floor by Vice Mayor Lowenthal and Councilmember Supernova. Please cast your. Votes, Mayor. Members of council, I assume that the amendment by the vice mayor was accepted by the second to remove the restriction on chicken. Thank you. Great. And so please cast your vote. Motion carries nine zero. Thank you all. Thank you and and congrats again to everybody. You guys all did a great job. Was great this year. By the way, some of you folks we've have known for a long time are some of the best one of the best things we have in Long Beach is, is this community and I really want to thank you for coming out. You guys are amazing. We're going to move on to to the next item. I'm going to move up and take item 24.