HomeMy WebLinkAboutDevelopment Code Revision 060623
Consider Planning & Zoning recommendation to amend Ordinance No 1200 Rexburg Development Code
06/06/2023 - jws
Over two years ago, our residents on South 12th West organized a committee to oppose rezoning that would drastically change our stable country neighborhood. We prepared a document appealing
to the city for protection of our neighborhood’s privilege of keeping and raising domestic animals. Now, after many months of dialogue with the city, these proposed amendments to the
Development Code address some key parts of our neighborhood’s concerns. However, at the June 1st planning and zoning public hearing, realtors rallied to express their opposition to domestic
livestock inside Rexburg city limits. This conflict is unfortunate and unnecessary.
The new definitions for pets and domestic livestock are a helpful improvement over the previous version of the development code:
Household Pet: Small domesticated animals permitted in the house or yard and kept for company or pleasure, such as dogs, cats, rabbits, birds/fowl, and reptiles. Under no circumstance
shall more than five (5) mammals, birds, or reptiles be allowed at one time, except that direct offspring shall be allowed for up to three (3) months.
Livestock, Domestic: Animals such as horses, cattle, swine, sheep, goats, rabbits, and poultry, which can be kept for education, and/or food production for those who raise them.
The new common-sense language in the “Permitted Accessory Uses” section (4.00.020.A.5) avoids the regulatory folly of becoming entangled with unpredictable details about which kind and
how many domestic animals could appropriately be raised in yard space available to a city resident:
5. Household pets and/or domestic livestock are allowed if yard space is adequate for the quantity and size of animals kept.
The planning and zoning commissioners worried about the definition of “adequate” and who would decide what was adequate, but they were more concerned about the language, which specifically
endorsed domestic livestock in LDR1, LDR2, and LDR3 residential zones. Commissioners recalled community discussions about trusting our Rexburg residents to be respectful in the way they
exercise animal raising privileges. They acknowledged the absence of this kind of problem in the city.
For this animal issue, if the city establishes correct principles, we should expect our citizens to govern themselves appropriately. In the rare case that someone uses bad judgment,
and the pets or livestock cause egregious disturbance to neighbors, then the city’s noise and nuisance ordinances provide regulatory authority to remedy the problem.
In harmony with the planning and zoning commissioners’ recommendation that domestic livestock changes be removed from the proposed amendments to the code, we suggest that the “Animals”
sections (which were specifically added to “Permitted Uses” in each residential zone) be entirely removed. Those “Animals” sections are unnecessary and redundant because of the general
“Permitted Accessory Uses” section (4.00.020.A.5), which protects residents who want to responsibly raise an appropriate number of domestic animals on their property.