Port St. Lucie resident starts petition to allow backyard chicken farms in city
By Jade Jarvis
Click here for updates on this story
PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (WPBF) — It’s hard to get your hands on a carton of eggs these days, thanks to a nationwide shortage caused by bird flu and high prices.
Many are now turning to a homegrown solution: backyard chicken farms.
But in Port St. Lucie, it is illegal for homeowners to raise their own chickens.
Katie Whelan started a petition on Change.org to allow backyard chickens in the city.
“With the rising costs of eggs and the bird flu potential scare, where, you know, 20 million chickens were killed because of it. So, I just think it’s very important that people will be able to know that they can provide for their families,” Whelan said.
Whelan lives in the city and said she went to a city event and spoke to the mayor about why residents are not able to raise chickens.
“She said that in 2022, they did address it, and the City Council turned it down due to not having enough code enforcement personnel, not wanting chickens roaming the streets. However, I think that’s kind of minuscule compared to food security issues and, you know, families wanting to provide,” Whelan said.
Shortly afterward, she published the petition. In just under two weeks, it has nearly 800 signatures.
“Just seeing that so many people are in agreeance and also would like to have chickens. It just shows, you know, I hope the city will understand like, look, this is what your residents want, and will allow it,” Whelan said.
We reached out to the city of Port St. Lucie for comment. It sent us a statement saying, “City ordinances do not allow for farm animals, which include chickens, to be kept within city limits. Raising chickens has been determined to be incompatible with the city’s design and a population that now surpasses 250,000.”
Despite that, Whelan is optimistic. She has also created a Facebook group to better organize supporters of the effort.
“I’m going to start building a coop because I want to be prepared for when, hopefully, it is allowed,” Whelan said.
Whelan said she plans to let the petition accumulate more signatures before potentially taking it to City Council.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
