Morgan Hill
– Planning Commissioner Joe Mueller uttered words Tuesday night
that goat-owner Frank Dutra has been waiting months to hear:
”
The animals can come back.
”
But it’s still going to be some time.
Morgan Hill – Planning Commissioner Joe Mueller uttered words Tuesday night that goat-owner Frank Dutra has been waiting months to hear:
“The animals can come back.”
But it’s still going to be some time.
A revised city ordinance passed Tuesday night, must receive final approval from the council, and if it passes, will go into effect in mid April.
To allow the goats’ return, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended changing the existing ordinance, defining the difference between commercial and non-commercial uses.
Dutra’s goats were used to keep weeds down, but otherwise functioned as pets, and had become favorites of neighborhood children.
Dutra’s goats have been gone from his seven-acre property at 815 Diana Ave., since September.
After Dutra and several neighbors took the matter to the council, planning staff and the Planning Commission were told to find a way to allow goats as pets while still providing protection from out-of-control amounts of livestock in residential areas.
What staff came up with, and what the commission approved, is to allow up to two adult livestock and their immature offspring for every 40,000-square-feet (nine-tenths of an acre), in a secure corral located at least 50-feet from the property line.
Mueller said Wednesday that the 50-foot line allows more control.
“You have to maintain some separation,” Mueller said. “I think this ordinance will work; Frank should be able to live with it.”
Each additional five-acre piece can house two more animals, plus their immature offspring, with a 100-foot set back.
The commission wanted to make sure the ordinance allows 4-H projects, selling a few eggs and other limited personal, not commercial, use. The new ordinance would allow a family to sell calves resulting from resident cows and bulls if they would exceed the set number of animals per acre.
Property owners must live on the site to qualify for the new rules.
Current city ordinance allows the same number – two plus offspring – on one acre and no more than two on property of any size without a special permit. The animals had to be at least 200 feet from the nearest school, church, hospital or residence – except the animals’ owner’s house.
Domesticated animals include horses, mules, burros, cattle, sheep, goats, llamas but not hogs or pigs, and no difference is drawn between commercial and non-commercial uses. Poultry is excluded from the ordinance.
Neighbors can still file complaints with the city’s code enforcement officers if there are too many animals, too close or if flies, noise and smell becomes offensive or if there is a danger to others.
The code enforcement number is 779-7241.
Dutra was a bit dubious when contacted Wednesday, because the 50-foot distance would make him build a new fence across the northern boundary.
Two horses he was keeping were rubbing against and breaking a good-neighbor fence that separated his land from a newer condominium’s yard. This will somehow have to be remedied, Rowe said.
“It was my plan to let the five goats run the whole five acres,” Dutra said. “I don’t want to flood the place with animals, I just want my goats.”
Still, Dutra was grateful to the council for helping him out.
“I am glad they changed the law; we’ll see what we can do,” he said.
Even though Dutra has had goats at the Diana Avenue address for years, they have always been illegal.
The original ordinance was written in the 1960s but, as long as no one complained, the city did not enforce the law.
After the code enforcement department received one formal and more informal complaints, they took action.
