Mattawa updates chicken rules

MATTAWA — The Mattawa City Council again updated the city’s chicken ordinance May 20, after it approved adding a one-time senior fee during a previous meeting.

While code enforcement can access chicken owners’ property, a pre-license inspection and one-time coop fee of $50 was removed from the ordinance. A chicken license, costing $15, must be applied for each year and authorizes residents of single-family homes to have up to six chickens. Items unchanged in the ordinance include a prohibition on roosters and killing animals in city limits.

During the May 20 meeting, the council discussed adding language to the chicken application, pre-authorizing access for city code enforcement to chicken owners’ backyards with 24-hour notice. Mattawa City Attorney Katherine Kenison said adding such language would give code enforcement the ability to access properties “to verify compliance.”

“If you take that out, it reduces the ability of code enforcement to monitor those permits and the conditions of those coops,” Kenison said. “It is always good to give advance notice so we’re not invading the property owner’s privacy.”

The city’s chicken ordinance was updated at the request of Mayor Maggie Celaya, a chicken owner, who, as of February, had not had a chicken license in the past ten years. When Celaya first brought the ordinance to council for revision in April, she said she wanted to make getting a chicken license easier for Mattawa residents.