Planning commission backs chicken changes

A public hearing to discuss allowing residents to raise chickens drew no public participation during Tuesday's Cloquet Planning Commission meeting and was passed unanimously by the commission. The change would require amending two different sections of the city code.

Planning commission members voted 5-0 to change the lot size from a staff suggestion of 11,000 square feet to 10,890 square feet, which is exactly a quarter-acre, for the language in Chapter 8.4.02 of the City Code, the city's ordinance regarding farm animals. Rather than prohibiting all farm animals except for lots in the agricul...