Athens City Council had asked the commission to consider the matter, and is expected to speak about it again after the commission ruling in a committee meeting this upcoming Monday.

Chickens are already allowed within city limits, but must be kept 100 feet from any property line, which disqualifies most properties in the city. First Ward City Council member Kent Butler announced earlier this summer his intention to introduce legislation that would allow city residents to keep a small number of chickens, by changing the setback requirements.

In a discussion on the social networking website Facebook, a variety of residents expressed their opinions on the matter with some arguing in favor of chickens and others arguing against.

"Do you really want your neighbor who lives 5 feet away having 20 chickens that they never clean up after?" resident Terry Boyer asked in the public forum. "What about chickens that cluck and chatter all night? ... I know that they are considering a 'no rooster' rule, but hens can make a lot of noise on their own."

Boyer added, however, that if a resident has enough room on his or her property to not be annoying neighbors, there is no reason why the resident should not be allowed to do what he or she wants.

Kurt Frank said that he favors allowing chickens inside city limits.

"An ordinance could cover minimum requirements for enclosures, enclosure types, maximum number of chickens allowed, etc," he posted in the forum. "Maybe even having to get adjoining land owners to sign off before keeping them. This would make more sense than an arbitrary outright ban."

Another resident said he is for anything that makes a person more self-sustaining.

"It's no different than having any other animal on your property," he posted. "If a neighbor had 50 dogs tied up on a city lot and never cleaned up the poop, the city would get involved."

He pointed out that 50 years ago many residents probably raised chickens.

Yet another resident posted that she wouldn't want chickens "or chicken poo" next door or across the street, and said they belong in the country.

Athens City-County Health Department administrator Chuck Hammer shares this "chicken poo" concern. Hammer spoke to the city planners before their ruling, and said Wednesday that all of his concerns stem from actual situations that his department has dealt with already.

"I think the problem is related to the small area that is available in an urban situation, on an urban lot," he said. "Even with a small number of birds, there is a large impact on the property in terms of manure."

Also, chickens can be messy eaters, he pointed out, spilling feed and attracting other animals to the property such as rodents and raccoons.

"The fecal material is very attractive for flies," he said. "And those critters all tend to export the problem onto a neighboring property. So a mouse might find a harborage in one area and feed in another, so they travel back and forth."

Run-off of the manure in a small area due to a rain event also happens, Hammer said.

"The problems with the keeping of livestock, including chickens, are aggravated when you reduce the amount of available land that buffers those animals from a neighbor that may not be interested in the byproducts of the animal husbandry," he said.

Another issue is predators that would be attracted to the birds and feed, such as possums and raccoons, which he said would find a bonanza with the chickens.

"A marauding family of raccoons... can be quite destructive," he said.

Hammer said that he can't think of a public health benefit to having chickens in town.

Ronda Clark of Community Food Initiatives said Wednesday that she is conflicted on the issue of chickens in city limits.

"I'm cautious about it because somebody who doesn't know how to take care of chickens could make a big mess," she said. "But at the same time it is food security."

She said that folks who want chickens should take that into consideration when picking a place to live, and should choose a residence on the edge of the city, or make sure that they have a big enough lot.

"I feel like the homeowner, or the person who wants the chickens, needs to take responsibility too, because they can be a bit of a nuisance if people don't take care of them well," she said. "At the same time, it is food security to have eggs and to have meat."

Whatever code gets developed, if it gets developed, she said, is important. It would need to have enough teeth, she said, to keep people who shouldn't have chickens from having them. She said she would support some sort of training requirement for those in city limits who want to have chickens.

The city also would need to work with real-estate people, she said.

"I think the city needs to allow people to have food security, but at the same time the resident needs to be educated and make smart decisions," she said.

Another area resident, Gerry Stotts of Albany, posted on Facebook. "They should allow it because it would make it easier to pick up chicks," he wisecracked.