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Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 33
UNFINISHED BUSINESS — ORDINANCES

O-18-019
Endorser: Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman Jan Schmidt
AMENDING THE LAND USE CODE BY ADDING PROVISIONS REGARDING URBAN
CHICKENS
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERWOMAN KELLY TO AMEND O-18-019 IN ITS ENTIRETY BY REPLACING IT
WITH THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS RECOMMENDED BY THE PLANNING AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

ON THE QUESTION
President Wilshire

Do you want to clarify for the Board what those amendments were?

Alderwoman Kelly

First can | say thank you to Alderman Caron for my lovely hat tonight, | appreciate that very much. It is
on loan, it is going back to her

The amendments that were made in Committee, we did a couple of amendments to make sure that you
could have your cat legally near you and we also made an amendment to make sure that it was very
clear to people that it has to be in the coop outside the home. Then we also came to a compromise on
the setbacks and upped them from 6 feet to 20 feet.

President Wilshire
Ok, thank you. The motion is to amend, further discussion on that?
Alderman Jette

| was involved in some of those amendments but | cannot vote for this and the reason is that I’ve talked
to a lot of, | have to say nobody has contacted me saying they are in favor of this but | have received a
lot of people’s messages saying that they are against it. | have talked to people about it, I’ve talked to
people who have chickens elsewhere and | just think that we ... Alderman Tencza tried to amend the
ordinance to provide for an area requirement, | think it was half of an acre which was defeated. | have
talked to people and the people | have talked to and the research that I’ve done say that - | have come
to the conclusion that without some kind of area requirement the areas where this would be allowed in
many cases is just too congested.

Chickens, even female chickens make noise and they make a lot more noise when they are threatened
so when there are dogs in the area or cats or other animals, and the ordinance | think we ended up with
20-foot setback from the property line which is not very far. 20 feet is not very far from a property line.
And the other thing that people have talked to me about is the manure, the chicken manure that is
produced and especially when it rains it causes a lot of odor. | just think the way it is now, it just allows
chickens in too congested of an area and | just don’t — and the other thing | wanted to mention is that
this would be enforced by our Code Enforcement Department.

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 34

Our Code Enforcement Department does not have the staff to go out and police any of our ordinances
and they will tell you if ever talk to them, they will be the first to say they are a complaint driven agency.
So they rely on people to call and complain about things before they do anything. So what we are
doing is we are creating, what | am afraid of, is a source of complaints and those complaints are going
to have to come from neighbors. So now you've got neighbors calling the Code Enforcement Agency
complaining about other neighbors. My experience is that people are very reluctant to complain, they'll
complain to us, I’ve had people call me and say “don’t use my name, my neighbor has chickens which |
think is illegal currently, but | don’t want to call because | don’t want to cause a problem with my
neighbor’.

| think the idea where you know the idea may be a good one, but | think we are creating a problem for
our citizens and so that’s why | am against it.

Alderman Dowd

Couple of things, | am going to support this, | think it lends itself to having some issues but | have talked
to Director Marchant and her department is fully behind it and Code Enforcement falls under that. So
we will see how it goes. Most of the properties in your Ward already can have chickens, R30 and R40,
it is already allowed without some of the restrictions that are in this new ordinance. So like | said | am
going to support it and give it a wait and see and see what happens.

Alderman Klee

I’ve gone back and forth on this bill but | am going to tell you and | have said this before as a person
who grew up with chickens in my backyard and across the street at my Papa’s house, there is an odor,
it is not just the odor of the rain it is the odor of the hot sun. But we did build in that they need to clean
and they need to maintain it and so on. Code Enforcement is not going to be going out annually that
everybody has kept up with it. Instead what we are going to is much what Alderman Jette said, it is the
neighbor tattletale game, a neighbor has to call.

| can tell you as a person who has received those late night phone calls, because someone’s dog is
barking too loud or because somebody's dog jumped over a fence and did this or that and they don’t
want to be the bad guy calling the Police and kind of asking me to intervene for them which | do,
reluctantly | do. Maybe it is right, maybe it is wrong; | have other issues with it. | wish we had been
able to do what Alderman Tencza had requested making a larger space. | Know that would have
eliminated some people. | too have gotten phone calls, those are that | would guess say are for it,
basically say I’m not against it and | don’t have a problem with it, I’ll go to my neighbor’s house and get
fresh eggs. They are not going to do it themselves.

Then | get the people who vehemently say | absolutely do not want this in my yard, next to me, across
the street from me, etc. So | don’t believe that | will be supporting this bill.

Alderman Lopez

| am in support of it an Urban Chicken Act, | think it should be focused on the urban areas, using terms
like congested or square footage or whatever, | think the idea was to expand access to fowls to people
in different areas that have previously had that access restricted. If the Code Enforcement Department
and Director Marchant oversees it, is not necessarily against it and was essentially drive the bill, | don’t
necessarily think we need to speak for them. | think they know their job pretty well, they respond to calls
all the time, noise complaints particularly, dogs being a pretty common one. | don’t really see all of
those people who are complaining about chickens suddenly turning around and buying them and
having chickens, so | don’t think we are going to get a stampede of people who are owning chickens. |
think it is just going to be an optional thing.

And | can smell dog poop. | don’t think this is unique to people who are blind and have heightened
senses or anything But that is something that is okay in this City, we have like an entire plastic bag

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 35

infrastructure set up so that people can pick up their dog poop and move it along and not even batting
an eye. A lot of points have been made, | think we have discussed this at great length in committee
and gone over many, many areas of concern. | think it is an Urban Chicken Ordinance, | think it is
accomplishing its purpose, we should test it out and see how it goes.

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you. | Just wanted to make a couple of points. In terms of the 20 foot setback, | had a
conversation with Director Marchant and we talked about we can’t know for sure based on what
someone’s lot looks like, but this will most likely have the effect of the quarter acre recommendation
that was talked about because you are going to have to have enough space in your side or rear lot, so
there’s that.

The other thing | wanted to point everyone’s attention to, | sent you guys the check list that her
department put together that would actually be given to people who go ahead and want to get chickens
and it goes through in great length, someone already put the time into this, exactly how you need to
care, the manure, there’s three | think bullet points on manure and how you need to take care of it. So
that would be available as people come and also the gentleman from Nashua Farm said that he would
happily put those out as well.

| like to think big picture so | just wanted to circle back that to the idea that people have said a lot
tonight that’s about having a City that you want to be proud to live in. And | don’t think it is just one
thing that makes it happen, it might be VeoRide bikes, it might be Community Gardens, and maybe in
this case it might be chickens. So | think, for me, that means a City that is willing to grow, not only in
their numbers but in their ideas and | think this is an idea that will help us grow.

Alderman Tencza

Thank you, so I’ve been at every public hearing on this because of my position on the Planning Board
and Planning & Economic Development. What I’ve proposed is not that we don’t allow the City to grow,
but that we allow it to grow with a more measured approach. The half-acre proposal that | made at the
Planning & Economic Development Committee; what that would allow is it would allow 1,800 homes,
residences, lots to allow to have chickens and that is in addition to all the folks who are living in the R30
and R40 zones.

| am going to support the bill as it is amended right now, but | think we have to be careful and to echo
what Alderman Jette was saying, you know, | respect the fact that Director Marchant will say that she
can, her office can handle complaints and | do not believe that complaints would be rampant throughout
the City if this ordinance passes. However, every call that they go to, every call the Police get because
they have to go and try to enforce this bill or animal control, or zoning is a call that they are not
checking into for safe living conditions for somebody else or doing something that is more fundamental
to someone’s health and well-being.

My proposal in amending and | think Alderwoman Kelly and | may have a disagreement on this, mirrors
what they do in Manchester; it is a half-acre lot. You have to have at least a half-acre in order to have 6
chickens with all the same regulations as proposed in this bill. | am willing, when the time comes, to
make that motion again if the Board is willing to entertain that.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

| did spend a little time today with Director Marchant because | was trying to understand the different
areas that were on a map a while ago. Most of the areas that chickens were involved in were like acre
lots basically across Nashua, the outskirts of Nashua like going toward Massachusetts and things of
that nature.

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 36

| had several constituents call and actually wrote letters in regard to hoping that | would vote against it.
One in particular | believe she did come to the Planning Board meeting and she spoke about having |
guess her property or she had investment property and the people next door have chickens. Her
tenants continuously complained about the clucking and the odor that was coming from there and
basically they began to move out and she was having a hard time renting because of the chickens.

The other person she was concerned about the law enforcement or any enforcement being taking the
staff overseeing the human habitants in the City. So what she was saying was that she felt that staff
was being inundated with the issues that we have with property here so now you are going to say send
them out to deal with the chickens, etc., etc. and she didn’t think that was what would happen for staff
for Code Enforcement or the Police Department or any other person that would go out.

What | did think was reasonable was anywhere from an acre to one acre of property, anything less than
that, | felt as well there was a problem with. | did discuss that with her as well. So if they want entertain
more than a half an acre | would be willing to vote for that, otherwise | would be voting no.

Alderman Klee

| have a question for Alderman Tencza, were you saying that we should make this amendment or
change, | guess | don’t understand where we are going from here?

Alderman Tencza

If | may and | apologize | didn’t know if now was the time to make the amendment or to wait until after
the amended ordinance was adopted.

Attorney Bolton

You can go down to a second level of amending. So you can propose an amendment here which
would then amend the amendment that is before the Board and that can be voted on, but beyond the
second level, one cannot go.

Alderman Tencza

So Madam President if | may just make an amendment to section 190-31.1C2 so that it reads “up to six
adult chickens may be kept on a lot of at least a half-acre in size”.

MOTION BY ALDERMAN TENCZA TO FURTHER AMEND BY ADDING THAT THE LOT MUST BE
AT LEAST A HALF OF ACRE IN SIZE IN SECTION 190-31,(1)(C)(2)

ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Lopez

In the Committee was discussed this amendment and it would significantly reduce the number of
available chickens. Again, there is no evidence that suggests that everybody is going to trade their dog
in for a chicken and we are going to have a wave of this. So | still think we are kind of jumping at
shadows and | will not support this amendment | will support the original amendment.

Alderman Klee

And | agree, | don’t think people are going to turn their dogs in for chickens, but | do think it is a way of
going perhaps if this does work we can come back later on and shorten this, but we can’t put the genie
back in the bottle if we go with the smaller lot. Because we have no sunset, we have no provision of re-
entertaining this so I’d rather start large and work our way down to small so | will support the
amendment.

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 37

Alderman O’Brien

Thank you Madam President, | can support the previous amendment and | would like to advise my
fellow Alderman Tencza, if | may suggest, I’m not against to the whole board if they ever want to put in
a sunset clause. If | could just reiterate to the Board, if there was an amendment that was going to
come forward, we did have that with street acceptance, that we had. People were concerned with the
overnight parking and they put in a sunset clause, to which it did come back on a targeted date to the
Infrastructure Committee we looked at it again, we said were there any complaints? And in looking at
the complete history and there were none, and so therefore we made the recommendation to accept
those several streets.

So | am just saying it could still be out there, if there is a fear of some pending issues or problems, we
could take a sunset approach to this and within the year come and look at it again and then make the
decision if we want to continue this. Now | understand there is livestock involved and you can easily
put into the sunset you are not going to eliminate the livestock. In other words, the current permits that
are issued if they were to be denied in the future with the sunset, you can say upon the natural
termination of life expectancy of those particular livestock. You don’t have to issue any new permits.

It seems to be the prudent way if you are guarded about something, it might be the better way just to
look at it and say let’s try it, let’s see if it works, if it doesn’t work we can adjust it at that particular time.
Thank you.

Alderwoman Kelly

So point of clarification, if we do a sunset clause, everybody who has a chicken coop, it is around the
accessory dwelling. So if you have 6 chickens and your 6 chickens die off, as long as you don't, |
believe it is move, there a couple things, but you can still have chickens. We can’t tell them once their
chickens die you’re done. It is about the accessory and not necessarily the animals inside. That’s how
| understood it from Director Marchant.

My second point would be that we as a Board have the opportunity to amend anything that we think
isn’t working and | think that is how this works. Director Marchant has willingly said she would do a
year report, see where we are, talk about any complaints, any adjustments that we need to make. |
think that makes sense, | don’t think we need a sunset clause in order to re-look at this and make sure
we are getting better all the time.

Alderman Lopez

| was really looking forward to the great chicken culling when the thousands of people buy chicken. |
would also have wanted to point out that the sunset clause is based on the coop but we could
potentially amend the chickens that are allowed in it and scale them down if they are a problem.

Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja

We discussed this in Committee and | referenced what happened with accessory dwellings and if you
remember we passed the initial legislation for accessory dwellings; there is no sunset clause but there
were concerns raised. So we came back to Committee, we amended it and the amended version was
then passed by the Board of Aldermen.

So again we could come back and we could decide to amend the number of chickens or we could just
say we are going to remove this. Those people who have chickens would keep them and we would
issue no further permits is my understanding. And | am looking at Attorney Bolton because that was the
understanding | had in terms of this piece of legislation.

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 38

Attorney Bolton

Well this is a Zoning Ordinance and in Zoning there is something called “Prior Non-Conforming Uses”
and basically that means if you undertake a use of property and it is legal and permitted by zoning
when you undertake that use, that subsequent amendments to the zoning ordinance does not affect
your use of the property. | think it is an interesting approach to say you are going to amortize over the
life span of your existing chickens.

In some States amortization of non-conforming uses has been permitted. | know of no case where it
has been permitted in New Hampshire. If you are talking about reducing the number of chickens or
expanding your set back requirements or expanding your lot size requirements, that will certainly impact
people who want to undertake chicken rearing following the passage of these future amendments. But

| would say it probably doesn’t impact the continued use by people who establish that use while it is
legal. So they would not have to abide by any increase over the 20 foot setback or any of the other
dimension requirements.

Alderman O’Brien

Thank you Madam President, just a point of order or clarirfication. By use of a sunset clause, the
difference between that and the Chairman re-introducing it at a later date, the sunset clause by the
virtue of the motion, sets a specific target date of one year or whaver is deemed within that motion that
it will come up before the Board. It doesn’t have to be remembered by the Chairman if the Chairman
should change or the Board should change, the sunset actually affects the date. Am | correct in that
interpretation of that?

President Wilshire

| believe so yes.

Attorney Bolton

How that would play into a zoning law and the doctrine of prior non-conforming uses, at this point | am
willing to opine on, it is unknown.

Alderman Dowd

| am not in favor of the sunset clause; in some instances like the parking there was no issue with if we
stopped it, it didn’t hurt anybody other than they didn’t have a place to park. But in this instance, people
may have spent money conforming with all the rest of the ordinance to have chickens and if it is a
sunset, all of a sudden that is going to go away.

We talked about Code Enforcement not having time to go out and enforce the current ordinance but
who the heck is going to go out and be able to recognize the chickens and know they haven’t been
replaced? | am not going to support the amended amendment.

Alderman Gidge

Chickens aren’t even housebroken when they are outside. We raise chickens in the south end. You
don’t want chickens. First, you can’t keep them in and then you can’t keep things out. But! find this
extremely interesting, this talk about chickens has been more exciting than the talk about a place to
have a play. 14 angry aldermen over chickens.

Alderwoman Kelly

| just want to point out that we’ve had multiple public hearings. The first public hearing in this chamber,
everybody was in favor, Director Marchant specifically has said multiple times that this is the number

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 39

one call that they get Tonight when people had another opportunity to speak, nobody got up and spoke
against it. | have not received anything against it and | think we need to give it a try.

MOTION FAILED
Division Taken

MOTION CARRIED TO AMEND O-18-019 AS MOVED BY ALDERWOMAN KELLY

MOTION BY ALDERWOMAN KELLY FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF O-18-019 AS AMENDED
MOTION CARRIED

Ordinance O-18-019 declared duly adopted as amended.
NEW BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS
R-18-096
Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman June M. Caron
DECLARING A MUNICIPAL SPECIAL ELECTION TO FILL A VACANCY ON THE BOARD OF
ALDERMEN ON MARCH 5, 2019, ESTABLISHING THE TIME PERIOD FOR FILING
NOMINATION PETITIONS, ESTABLISHING POLLING TIMES AND ISSUING PRECEPTS TO
THE SELECTMEN OF THE CITY WARDS
Given its first reading;

There being no objection President Wilshire suspended the rules to allow for the second
reading of R-18-096

Resolution R-18-096 given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CARON FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-18-096
ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Jette

| am wondering why was March 5'" chosen as opposed to February 5'"?
President Wilshire

Well there is a timeline that the City Clerk needs to get certain things done.
Alderman Jette

So that is the soonest we could do this?

President Wilshire

Pretty much, yes.

MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-18-096 declared duly adopted.

ORDINANCE:

PURPOSE:

ENDORSERS:

COMMITTEE

ASSIGNMENT:

FISCAL NOTE:

LEGISLATIVE YEAR 2016

Amended O-16-003

Administrative Enforcement of Ordinances

Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Ken Siegel

This legislation will allow for administrative fines for violations
of city ordinances.

ANALYSIS

RSA 31:39-c, effective January 1, 2010, enables the city to establish a system for the
administrative enforcement of municipal ordinances. This legislation adds a new chapter
establishing such a system and removes inconsistent provisions. Section 1-12 contains a general
penalty for violation of ordinances.

Approved as to form:

Office of Corporation Counsel

By:

Date:

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 40

R-18-097
Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
RELATIVE TO THE TRANSFER OF $31,870 FROM GENERAL CONTINGENCY INTO
VARIOUS CITY CLERK DEPARTMENT ACCOUNTS FOR EXPENSES RELATED TO THE
MUNICIPAL SPECIAL ELECTION ON MARCH §, 2019
Given its first reading;

There being no objection President Wilshire suspended the rules to allow for the second
reading of R-18-097

Resolution R-18-097 given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-18-097
MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-18-097 declared duly adopted.

R-18-098
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Patricia Klee
AUTHORIZING THE SALE OF TAX DEEDED PROPERTY LOCATED AT 38 % WEST HOLLIS
STREET TO MANCHESTER HOUSING SERVICES, INC. D/B/A NEIGHBORWORKS
SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE
Given its first reading; assigned to the COMMITTEE ON INFRASTRUCTURE by President Wilshire

R-18-099
Endorsers: Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A SUCCESSOR “CONCESSION
AGREEMENT” WITH NASHUA COLLEGIATE BASEBALL, INC.
Given its first reading; assigned to the FINANCE COMMITTEE by President Wilshire

NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES

O-18-030
Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
INCREASING FEES FOR LEASED CITY PARKING SPACES

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 41

Given its first reading; assigned to the PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE by
President Wilshire

PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

Bernie Cote Yes my name is Bernie Cote and | live at 20 Greenlay Sreet in Nashua and | just had my
house, somebody from your Assessment Department came by and the value of my property went up
quite a bit. | went downstairs to your assessment and | asked them how they did that and they said well
we drove around your neighborhood and we looked at all the houses and we figured that your property
was worth more than it was. So | said, you didn’t walk out in the backyard or try to come into the house
and look at it or anything like that. And they said no. So! said well if you went to my backyard you
would have noticed that | put a fence up about four or five years ago and it is down. And | said
somebody should come in the house and look at it and to see the inside of the property. And they said
to me they said well somebody came two years ago and knocked at your door and you came but they
said we don’t need to come in so we will just talk to you. Then | went and asked them for my military
discount and they won’t give it to me. | am just saying it is not a way to assess property by just driving
around your neighborhood and look at everybody’s houses and say well these houses all look good so
yours looks the same. | don’t want to get into any more discussion, but | want tell you people | have a
lawyer actually dealing with your Assessing Department.

Yvonne Donetz Madam President, Legislative Manager, City Clerk, members of the Board of Aldermen
and of course Mayor Donchess. Yesterday, December 10'" Access Nashua Education Channel rolled
out an educational video called Celebrate Nashua. So Access Nashua and Channel 19 rolled out the
educational video “Celebrate Nashua” and it also went up on Youtube at youtube.com.

Celebrate Nashua video consisted of over 20 interviews with community leaders from Nashua
discussing the many facets of life worth celebrating in Nashua, New Hampshire. Its purpose was to
raise awareness in form and celebrate the history, people, culture and arts of Nashua and that is the
music to it, that’s true.

Mayor Donchess

Sorry that is the video it is actually playing, now | can’t turn it off.

Yvonne Donetz It is to raise awareness in form and celebrate the history, people, culture and the arts
of Nashua, NH by weaving together the beautiful and amazing stories of who we are, who we have
become and who we wish to be as we journey together in making Nashua, NH the very best place to
work, live and play.

Access Nashua and the educational television aired tonight at 10:00 and | couldn’t interrupt you to try
and watch it. Their schedule is beginning today through the 16" it will run on the education channel 99,
Monday — Friday at 10:00 and Saturday and Sunday at 6:00 pm. Access Nashua Channel 96 it will run
starting tomorrow the 12'" and 4:00 p.m. and then on the 13", Thursday at 10:30 a.m., 14" at 2:00 p.m.,
15" at noon, 16" at 1:00, 17" at 10:00 a.m. and the 18'" at 8:00 a.m. It gives me great pride to tell you
that this video honors all of those who serve and in the end you will see that there is a special area that
you will see you are able to place in memory of Brian McCarthy.

| also would like to make note of those that helped with this video project. It is important to make it
public because this about a City that all of you love and all of us love. Allegra Boverman helped
tremendously with photography, Halverson Design helped with the beginning video, the drone footage
we took some of that video to show Nashua. Grant Morris also contributed to the video footage |’m
tired, lve been up since 4:00 in the morning so forgive me. Celeste Guidice helped with video and
photograph, Ed Lecius helped prepare and helped us with the Nashua Police Department photos.