Skip to main content
Pasco Countymeeting record

PDE-26-0028

Published agenda

Heard once, at the Board of County Commissioners on Nov 12, 2025.

OutcomeAdopted by the Board of County Commissioners on Nov 12, 2025
Approved to adopt by a roll call vote.

Official title

An Ordinance By The Pasco County Board Of County Commissioners Amending The Pasco County Code Of Ordinances; Amending Section 14-27 Definitions; Creating Section 14-150 Conditions For The Keeping Of Chickens; Section 14-151 Coops And Enclosures; Section 14-152 Health, Sanitation And Nuisance; Section 14-153 Education; And Other Sections, As Necessary, For Internal Consistency; Providing For Applicability; Repealer; Providing For Severability; Inclusion Into The Code Of Ordinances, And An Effective Date.

Every appearance1 of 1 are in a recording

TranscriptWhat was said at each appearance is below it. Machine transcription, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 95% of 62 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.

  1. 1
    Board of County CommissionersP62Public hearingAdopted
    Approved minutes

    Approved to adopt by a roll call vote.

    Open this item →
    8m
    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Uh hallelujah eye. Chickens are in. Okay. P sixty two.

    P sixty two proof of publication again September third, twenty twenty five. In the Tampa Bay time.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    No, did I skip one? Yeah. P sixty one. Sorry, I already flipped

    Unidentified speakerVoice A

    my paypool. P sixty one was back there, chicken. Oh that was the two.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Wait a

    minute.

    Okay, P sixty two. Also chickens.

    Ron Oakley

    Item P62 is PDE 260028. This is an ordinance by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners amending the Pasco County Code of Ordinances. Amending section 14-27 definitions, creating section 14-150, conditions for the keeping of chickens, section 14-151, coops and enclosures, Section 14-152, health, sanitation, and nuisance. Section 14-153, education, and other sections is necessary for international consistency, providing for applicability

    repealer, providing for severability inclusion until the court of ordinance is and an effective date. This comes to you with a recommendation to adopt the proposed ordinance by roll call vote and accept public comment. And we have a presentation.

    Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair

    Yeah. Terry, back to our previous conversation. Um don't really want to have code bogged down any more than they all already are. So do we we make it um less cumbersome for the coupes and everything associated with it like we discussed the last meeting?

    Amanda Hill

    I can provide a presentation of the provisions for this one. Okay.

    Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair

    High level, not you know.

    Amanda Hill

    Okay. So the intent of this ordinance is to provide standards related to the keeping of chickens for residential properties as now allowed by section 530.25 of the LDC. This is a summary of those provisions. The amendment proposes the creation of a new Article 3 in Chapter 14, Animals. Section 14-150 specifies that the property owner is allowed up to four hens, no roosters. and requires a property to be occupied and not used as a vacation rental. Section

    14-151 provides additional details on the coops, including the maximum size and height, space per bird, and specifying the location to be restricted to the side or rear yards. The coops are required to be accessible for cleaning and maintained accordingly so as not cause a nuisance.

    Section 14-152 speaks further to the requirement for nuisance control and provides procedures for disease management and disposal of birds. And finally, section 14-153 requires the completion of the UFIFAS course, the ability for code compliance to conduct monitoring compliance as necessary, and the requirement to

    Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair

    let's pause there.

    Amanda Hill

    Yeah.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    I thought we took

    Amanda Hill

    that out.

    Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair

    Well that the the the course is supposed to be

    Amanda Hill

    The permit requirement was removed.

    Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair

    And the course. The course was supposed to be removed also.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Yeah.

    Yeah, I'm okay with that because you can just actually how to take care of chickens.

    Amanda Hill

    So I'm gonna read directly from the actual red line as to what the language states right now. So prior to obtaining chickens, the property owner must enroll in and complete a certification course offered by UFIFus of Pasco County. The property owner shall allow access to the premises by co-compliance officials for the purposes of monitoring compliance with the requirements of this chapter. Failure to allow for inspection upon request with reasonable notice shall be addressed by any of the methods available in section 108 of this code and Article 5,

    Division 4 of the Pasco County Code of Ordinances. That's the language in terms of monitoring and compliance.

    Lisa Yeager

    Yeah, you were right. You were taking the course out. The permit and the course.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Yeah what's what's the it's the section fourteen dash one five three that we were thinking might have been overkill.

    Amanda Hill

    So that section had both the course and the permit requirements and we removed the permit requirements. I have details on the course here in terms of what it includes. It's at the board's discussion if you would like staff to remove that language as well regarding the course. But we thought that it was important to include that so that persons who are first-time chicken owners that they have the necessary education to take care of the chickens because they're not similar to pets, they have specific needs, and to ensure that there aren't compliance issues caused due to how

    the chickens are kept. Yeah.

    Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair

    I understand you as staff think it's important to include that. We as a board last meeting, specifically in the majority, said remove it.

    Jack MarianoVice Chair

    Couldn't have been any clearer. Yeah. And I'm I'm good to have the information available for the people. But taking the course just looks like an extra expense for to slow down. I'm okay with the monitoring as well.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Yeah.

    Jack MarianoVice Chair

    Because I think you need to just in case you have someone who's going rogue or is maintaining it and you got rats and snakes or whatever. So I'm okay with the monitoring part, but just that education part. Okay. You can make it available, which I think I should do but but not a requirement.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Can we can we say it is suggested that participants

    But not.

    Unidentified speakerVoice B

    I think we can just include that on the website or a traditional type of thing. I don't think it needs to be in the ordinance. Yeah.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    I mean obviously if they didn't have a course then Other counties don't require that, right? Yeah.

    Amanda Hill

    Okay. Okay, hopefully move on. Did you need me to pr provide details on the course itself? No. No, we don't

    Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair

    need it. We don't want it.

    Amanda Hill

    So this is just a comparison by jurisdiction that we did looking at some of our neighbors and what they currently have. Most of the communities do not have a permit requirement. City of Brandonton and uh let's see, Hernando County, I believe, were the only two jurisdictions that required a permit. We're middle of the pack in terms of the number of birds and not having any roosters allowed. And in terms of the square footage of the coop and the minimum size per bird, we're also middle of the pack there. Most

    of these ordinances were adopted between 2011 and as early as 2025.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Um, I have a question. What the heck is a pullet? Little chicken. A What? A little chicken?

    Ron Oakley

    Young young chicken. A chick? No. No bigger than a chip.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    It's like a never heard of it. Kind of like a sort

    Ron Oakley

    of

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    a teenager. A teenage chicken.

    Ron Oakley

    Sorta. There you go.

    Oh my gosh. A

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    tweet. Tweet. It's not yet laid.

    Denise

    Tweenie.

    Amanda Hill

    Okay.

    And I'm available for any questions that you may have. Um this comes to the board. This comes to the board with a recommendation for approval and we would make the changes to remove the educational requirement.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Okay. All right, um we've made our comments unless you have some more. Is there anyone here that wishes to address the chickens and pulls ordinance? Did I say it right?

    Denise

    Yeah.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Actually it's hands in polaris. Um Do we have anyone online who wishes to address this? No one online.

    Unidentified speakerVoice A

    Madam Chairman, in addition to the motion that's found in your package, can we also get you to waive introduction of this ordinance?

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Okay. I will accept that in the motion. So move.

    Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair

    Yeah, that do we need to modify the motion to change the language to the county administrators shaking his head, so we need to amend the motion to the IFIS language to

    Jack MarianoVice Chair

    motion made at the county attorney set with a note of changes on no education. Okay. All right. And I exactly.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    Okay. Um and this is a roll call book.

    Kathryn StarkeyChair

    District 1, Commissioner Oakley. Aye. District 2, Commissioner Weightman. Aye. District 4, Commissioner Yeager. Aye. District 5, Commissioner Mariano. Aye. District 3, Chairman Starkey.