Chicken champion brings issue back to village

Four years after the Village of Saukville rejected a request to allow chickens to be kept in the backyards of single-family homes, the man who championed the effort has renewed the request. 

Tim Schwister, the founder of the Facebook group Saukville Chicken Champions, and his mother Barbara filed a petition earlier this month to amend the village zoning code that prohibits the keeping of poultry or fowl so residents could keep as many as four female chickens on most residential lots.

“The whole idea is to provide fun, meaningful education for children,” Tim Schwister said during an interview this week. “It teaches responsibility, it teaches stewardship, it teaches kindness, and you end up with fresh eggs.

“Getting sustainably grown food for your family is a huge deal in this day and age. It’s like food from your garden; it just tastes better.”

Schwister has also submitted a proposed ordinance change to the village that he said is based on years of research and ordinances in area communities that allow chickens.

“I have spent a lot of time researching this,” he said. “This is not my first rodeo as far as chickens go.”

Schwister’s proposed amendment would allow female chickens and other domesticated egg or meat-producing fowl — including ducks — to be kept on single-family lots in the village subject to various conditions.

The number of birds would be capped at four on lots that are 1.5 acres or smaller with an allowance for an additional female bird per every additional half-acre up to a “reasonable limit.”

Roosters, as well as flightless birds such as ostriches and emus, would be prohibited.

The birds would have to be contained in predator-proof pens with ventilated coops in the backyards of homes that are set back at least 40 feet from neighboring houses. 

Bird waste would have to be disposed of in accordance with an existing ordinance and chicken owners would need to apply for and receive annual permits from the village. Schwister has suggested an initial permit fee of $25 and a renewal fee of $15.

Schwister’s renewed effort comes at a time when other area communities are changing zoning codes or expanding them to allow various types of poultry to be kept on residential lots. Earlier this year, the Village of Thiensville decided to allow chickens and the Village of Belgium is currently considering it. 

Earlier this summer, the Village of Grafton expanded its code allowing chickens to include ducks, and at the time reported 12 active permits had been issued and no formal complaints received.

The only Ozaukee County municipalities that do not allow the keeping of chickens are the City of Port Washington and villages of Saukville and Belgium.

Schwister said he decided to bring his request back to the village after speaking to village officials and tweaking his proposed ordinance to address concerns. 

“After talking with members of the Village Board, it seemed like they were in favor of it,” he said. “And there is a lot of community support for chickens.”

He said the fact is, if the village allows the keeping of poultry, it will not be overrun by chickens.

“In the end, it will just be a couple of families who want to do it,” he said. 

Concerns about bird waste can be addressed with ordinances governing the disposal of pet waste, and worries about things like the noise made by female birds are unfounded, he said. 

“I understand not wanting to live next to a rooster, but a female chicken? Dogs make more noise,” Schwister said. 

The zoning change request is tentatively scheduled to be considered by the Plan Commission on Oct. 7 and Village Board on Oct. 21.

In August 2021, the Village Board voted 4-3 against a similar request after the Plan Commission recommended it not be approved.

Schwister said he is committed to winning the fight this time around. 

“If I don’t keep pushing, this will never happen,” he said. “So much effort has been put into this that to just let it fade away wouldn’t be right.

“It’s kind of a moral imperative for me. There’s just no reason not to allow a reasonable number of hens in the village.”