The City Council may banish roosters from residential areas to resolve neighborhood complaints about noise. Rooster residencies
in jeopardy
By Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.comThe Council will try to end the problem by allowing roosters only on agricultural land and hens to remain on their owners' property in residential areas, said Parks and Public Safety Chairman Jon Yoshimura.
The committee plans to hold a public hearing on a measure at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow.
Yoshimura said he plans to remove a controversial provision in the bill that would require enclosures of chickens to be at least 300 feet from their neighbor's property in residential, resort apartment or apartment mixed-used district. In effect the measure would allow chickens on large agricultural lots.
The provision was a backward approach to prohibiting chickens in residential neighborhoods, he said.
Yoshimura's amendment would allow roosters and hens in agricultural areas and hens only in residential districts, he said.
Under the current law, each household is limited to two chickens.
Council member John DeSoto, who represents Leeward Oahu, introduced the bill on behalf of residents in his district who complained about the noise nuisance of roosters.
Yoshimura added he plans to target only roosters instead of hens that are considered pets to some isle residents.
"The problem we're trying to deal with is the noise," he said. With congested neighborhoods, "people are a little sensitive of the noise roosters make," he added.
"People are going to have to find acceptable places to continue this activity outside of residential areas.
"It's been a growing problem. It's time we need to do something about it," he added.
Waimanalo chicken farmer George Rosete said he failed to understand the bill's provision concerning the minimum spacing requirement for chicken coops from neighboring properties. "They can still hear the noise," he said, even in wide-open areas.
Rosete said raising chickens is part of his lifestyle, and those who primarily complain about roosters are new residents in Hawaii.
However, Ewa Beach resident Earl Arakaki disagrees.
"It's an irksome, bothersome sound," said Arakaki, who has lived in Ewa Beach for 55 years.
Arakaki, one of several residents who testified earlier in support of the bill, agrees with Yoshimura's plan to ban roosters from residential areas.
Arakaki said that a year ago, his neighbor raised a rooster that would start to crow at 2 in the morning, waking him after a few hours of sleep.
Arakaki said he would try to drown out the sound of the rooster's crows with earplugs but said the noise would continue intermittently throughout the day. "It impacts on your quality of life," he said.
After he spoke to his neighbor, Arakaki said, the rooster was gone in two weeks.
