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Thursday, May 23, 2013

Council Considers Goat Ordinance

 Staff Report  
 
The Tallassee city council introduced and ordinance that if passed will permit domestic goats within the city to control vegetation.
The proposed ordinance would allow goats to battle kudzu, but is not limited to kudzu.
The idea for such an ordinance came to the attention of the city last spring when the Tallassee Historical Preservation Society requested the use of goats to control kudzu on its property on the west side of the Tallapoosa River.
Ann Christian is the THPS president. "We requested that the city council please consider an ordinance for THPS or any other "entity" to use goats (to) maintain overgrown property," she said. "(City attorney) John Smith recommended that it not be done and that THPS could rezone their property to agricultural, but if we do that there is no way we could get any type of grants.  So it was pretty much dead before it ever got off the table."
The historical society has now brought the idea back before the council to revisit. "This time, I felt like the majority of the members would be in favor," Christian added.  
Christian pointed out that other cities have ordinances in place allowing goats to help maintain properties. "Cities use goats to remove undergrowth for fire prevention (avoiding) the use of chemicals because of runoff to waterways."
Among the cities that have such ordinances include; St. Louis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and New York City."
Christian also noted that the previous property owner had two goats. "If there was a problem with the goats, there was never anything said."

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