Zoning Board talks chicken regulation, rat control with Health Department

The Waltham Zoning Board of Appeals last week discussed ways to improve interdepartmental communication and make the permitting process smoother for residential chicken owners.

According to section 3.612 of the city’s zoning code, the ZBA can grant residents special permits for “livestock farms under five acres in size, including … the raising or keeping of poultry, pigeons, and furbearing animals, except dogs.” Section 3.83 of the code, however, adds that residents keeping poultry on lots smaller than five acres in size must also be licensed by the Board of Health.

At the ZBA’s Jan. 27 meeting, Thomas Creonte, senior public health inspector in the Health Department, requested the board’s assistance in ensuring chicken owners go through the department to get yearly licenses for their coops.

ZBA member Mark Hickernell opposed additional conditions on chicken owners’ permits that would require them to report to the Health Department for licenses, arguing that such conditions would be outside of the scope of the ZBA’s power. After more discussion, however, board members agreed they could refer new permit holders to the Health Department for licenses after their ZBA hearings and notify the department of any new coops in the city.

Creonte said that chicken coops were a concern for the city, arguing that even if they were well maintained, they could attract rats. 

Personally, he said that he was against residential chicken coops: “I hate them. In my business, it puts a lot of work on the department and stress on the neighborhoods,” he said.

He added that the city has put a lot of resources into rat mitigation and hasn’t seen sufficient results. “The city has spent so much money [on rodent control.] I say it’s like emptying the ocean, one bucket at a time,” he said. “We’re throwing money at it. We just can’t make it go away.”

Creonte said that the current cold weather and the city’s dumpster ordinances could help control the rat population, but that the city’s current bait box strategy was not creating a “return on our money.”

Multiple board members spoke in favor of residents who had previously requested chicken permits from the ZBA, saying they were generally well prepared and had taken rat mitigation into account. 

“Most of them are ahead of us on that kind of stuff,” said ZBA chair John Sergi. “A lot of them have a [pest control program already in place] and they have a pesticide company come in.”

Further delays at 455 Totten Pond

A hearing for a special permit for a large residential project at 455 Totten Pond Road was again postponed due to a ZBA member’s absence. 

The board and developer agreed to take up the case again on Feb. 10, and extended the ZBA’s deadline to close the public hearing on the permit from Feb. 3 to Feb. 28.

A representative of the developer, The Davis Companies, expressed a sense of urgency in rescheduling the hearing since the project hasn’t appeared in front of the board since November. 

The representative said that some of the board’s questions about transportation, engineering and affordability would be answered by the project’s updated draft of the language for the special permit, which it plans to present to the board at the February meeting.