Saugeen Shores council is poised to move ahead with a two-year pilot project that will allow urban residents to raise chickens in their backyards.
On Monday, council voted 6-2 in favour of moving the draft bylaw ahead for a final vote next month, which would make it legal for residents to house up to five hens in backyard coops for the purpose of egg production.
Councillor Mike Myatt was one of the opposition votes and says he's speaking of behalf of hundreds of residents who are not in favour of backyard chickens.
He says he fears the chickens and their feed will encourage pests, both vermin and predators.
"There's a serious side to this, there's rats, there's mice, there's fox, coyotes, people are concerned, genuinely concerned about that," says Myatt. "So I'm representing what people are saying to me in the community."
Resident Katherine Martinko has been pushing for backyard chickens and dismisses the concerns, including suggestions it could make the community susceptible to avian flu.
"Chicken farmers who are raising birds en masse in gigantic barns are going to be dealing with sickness on a level that we are not in our own backyards," says Martinko. "Our chickens are going to be free-range hens, they're going to be running around outside eating compost, they're going to be a lot healthier than animals raised in confined industrialized farms."
The bylaw is expected to be on the Saugeen Shores council agenda for final reading next month, however, council must also pass an amendment to its comprehensive zoning bylaw, which currently only allows chickens in rural areas of the municipality.