The city annexes rural areas, complains about the farm animals, and passes restrictions:

City talks over laws
Council member proposes new rule on farm animals
By Bertrand M. Gutierrez
JOURNAL REPORTER
Tuesday, October 4, 2005

The odor of manure wafting in the summer air and roosters crowing in the morning just don't come to mind when some Winston-Salem residents think of city living.

Prompted by complaints from residents about farm animals, especially chickens and pigeons, the Winston-Salem City Council yesterday discussed tightening regulations on keeping such animals.

Fred Terry, the council member representing the Southeast Ward, asked for changes in the city code to keep the animals - and the neighbors who keep them - in line.

Farm animals are running amok, Terry said, and Forsyth County animal-control officers are not doing enough to enforce rules that already exist. Other council members, however, said that the city should work with residents who own farm animals. After all, some of them were annexed by the city of Winston-Salem.

New laws proposed yesterday would forbid chickens, pigeons and other fowl to be housed or sheltered within 150 feet of an adjacent property, and adequate fencing or shelter would be mandated. The 150-feet rule already exists for such other farm animals as horses, mules, donkeys, goats, sheep and cattle.

Vicky Smith, who lives in southern Winston-Salem, has goats. During the comment period of the meeting, she told the council that she has been ordered to get her goats 150 feet away from the property line.

The only problem is, she doesn't have that much land. Now, Smith can't understand why she has to give up her goats.

"You have to realize, I have dogs bigger than these goats," she said.

But if you're going to have farm animals in the city, you should be considerate of your neighbors, Terry said before the meeting.

The proposed ordinance is not meant to outlaw farm animals.

It's just supposed to add some distance between them and their neighbors, he said. Council members Joycelyn Johnson (East Ward) and Vivian Burke (Northeast Ward) backed Terry, but others balked at the proposed ordinance.

Robert Clark, the council member representing the West Ward, said that it would favor property owners with big tracts of land.

Council Member Nelson Malloy, representing the North Ward, asked if the 150-feet rule could be changed to make the distance shorter.

Meanwhile, Council Member Vernon Robinson, who represents the South Ward, said that the ordinance was overkill.

Odors and fecal waste from animals prompt more than 100 complaints a year, a senior code-enforcement official said after the meeting. In 2004, the housing-services department got 133 complaints about animals. Since 2001, it has gotten 490 complaints.

The council decided to revisit the issue during its next public meeting in two weeks.

In other action yesterday, regulations governing neighborhood preservation were fine-tuned.

And, separately, the council approved a rezoning request by Salem Academy and College that allows for expansion.

Specific plans for the college's expansion have not been drafted, but the general push is to develop a two-acre area south of Stadium Drive for a mix of uses "supporting an educational-village concept," according to the rezoning request.

• Bertrand M. Gutierrez can be reached at 727-7283 or at bgutierrez@wsjournal.com