Monitor In A Minute

By JANE MCCLURE

Historic properties survey moves ahead

Work continues to survey and preserve historic properties in the neighborhood around Hamline University. The St. Paul City Council Nov. 1 accepted a $25,000 grant for historic survey work. The grant, from the United States Department of the Interior Certified Local Government Grant Program, is overseen by the Minnesota Historical Society.

The funds will cover what is called a Cultural Resources Reconnaissance Survey of the Hamline-Midway Neighborhood. A resolution for the grant stated that it is city policy “that the preservation, protection, perpetuation, and use of areas, places, buildings, structures, and other objects having a special historical, community, or aesthetic interest or value, is a public necessity and in the interest of the health, prosperity, safety and welfare of the people, including safeguarding the heritage of the city by preserving sites and structures which reflect elements of the city’s cultural, social, economic, political, or architectural history.”

The resolution also authorizes the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) to “conduct a continuing survey of all areas, places, buildings, structures, or similar objects in the city which the HPC, on the basis of information available or presented to it has reason to believe are, or will be, eligible for designation as heritage preservation sites.”

The last neighborhood survey was done in 1983, as part of a larger Ramsey County survey. The need for a historic survey was raised a few years ago in the wake of Hamline University demolishing buildings without having a solid, comprehensive plan in place.

The grant is good news for the Historic Hamline Village (HHV) group, which has been working with city officials and the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota to save 1549 Minnehaha Ave W. as a Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (PAM) rehab lab workshop space. Meetings have been held with HHV, the Hamline University Neighborhood Advisory Committee, the statewide preservation group and city officials to discuss ways to reuse the house as an education center for housing maintenance and old house restoration. The group has been reviewing issues including the need to get the house back up to code and how it could be used as an education space.

New regulations for backyard chickens

By year’s end St. Paul will have new regulations for backyard chickens, with caps on flock size, fewer neighbor notification requirements and changes to chicken droppings disposal.

But final changes adopted Nov. 8 laid an egg with council members Chris Tolbert, Jane Prince, and Dan Bostrom. The three unsuccessfully tried to retain more stringent neighbor notification requirements in the ordinance. But their move to require written consent for all sizes of flocks fell short on a 3-4 vote.

The changes have the support of many chicken owners, Egg Plant store owners and Hamline-Midway residents Audrey Matson and Robert Lies, as well as the St. Paul-Ramsey County Food and Nutrition Commission. One opponent raised concerns about the potential health risks of chickens and the potential for them to carry disease.

The current regulation requires prospective chicken owners to get a consent petition signed by 75 percent of neighbors within 150 feet. That requirement would be eliminated for people who want to keep fewer than six chickens.

Bostrom said getting neighborhood consent to keep any number of chickens “is the responsible thing to do.”

Other council members said changes to the consent petition requirements undermine what they are trying to do by amending the chicken keeping regulations. “It does create the potential to make it harder and not easier to keep chickens,” said Council President Russ Stark.

What will go into place is a cap on chicken ownership. No caps are in place right now. The number of chickens will still be determined after a site visit and a look at the size of the yard. The maximum allowed will now be 15.

There will be a Tier 1 permit for owners of one to six female chickens at an initial cost of $26, and a renewal fee of $15. A Tier 2 permit is needed for seven to 15 chickens, at an initial cost of $74 and a renewal fee of $15. Tier 2 chicken owners will still need consent petitions from “owners or occupants of privately or publicly owned real estate within 150 feet of the outer boundaries of the premises.”

A third change allows chicken litter or waste to be composted in the chicken owners’ backyard compost bin. The waste still isn’t allowed at a community or public drop-off site.