MARSHALL — The city of Marshall will be considering whether to allow residents to keep chickens in their back yards. This week, Marshall City Council members voted to introduce proposed updates to city ordinances that included rules for keeping hens.

There wasn’t a lot of discussion of the proposal at Tuesday’s city council meeting. However, Mayor Bob Byrnes said he would be voting against the ordinance.

“I am not in favor of backyard chickens, for a variety of reasons that I will save for the public hearing,” Byrnes said.

Byrnes cast the only vote against introducing the ordinance.

Marshall City Clerk Steven Anderson said the proposed chicken ordinance was being introduced along with other updates to Marshall’s city ordinances involving animals.

“The last time this ordinance was updated was in 2008,” Anderson said. Some of the proposed updates, including definitions for dangerous or potentially dangerous dogs, would bring Marshall ordinances in line with state laws. Other changes updated the types of animals allowed to be kept as pets.

“We found that there’s a lot of strange things, such as hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs weren’t allowed in the ordinance. And so we made some amendments, to actually allow some very common pets to be allowed in the city of Marshall,” Anderson said.

The biggest proposed ordinance change was language that would let Marshall residents keep up to five backyard hens. Anderson said the council Legislative and Ordinance Committee discussed the proposal with veterinarians and representatives of Southwest Health and Human Services in September.

Anderson said city staff also researched ordinances at other Minnesota cities similar in size to Marshall. Cities including Brainerd, New Ulm, Fergus Falls, Buffalo, Cloquet and St. Peter all allowed a limited number of backyard chickens. Other cities, including Worthington and Willmar, did not allow chickens.

New Ulm city ordinances allow up to four backyard hens, but require owners to get consent from their neighbors. In St. Peter, up to six hens are allowed, and consent from neighboring residents isn’t required.

The proposed Marshall ordinance would allow residents to get a permit to keep up to five backyard hens, but no roosters. The chickens would also need to be secured in a run or coop, and there were rules and setbacks on where a chicken run or coop could be placed.

Byrnes said he was concerned that allowing backyard chickens in Marshall would lead to property issues or conflicts between neighbors. He said there were other issues that also concerned him, including enforcement of the ordinances, preventing odor and disease, and what would be done with spent hens.

A majority of council members voted to introduce the proposed ordinance updates. The ordinances need to have a public hearing and go back before the council before any final decisions can be made.