Ald. Paul Skidmore is planning a "chicken summit."
It all started when Pastor Jeff Wild of Madison Christian Community, one of the churches in Skidmore's west Madison district, expressed interest in raising chickens - ideally more than the four permitted for residential properties under the city's existing ordinance.
Skidmore contacted Madison's "chicken czar," Greg Patmythes of city zoning, who made an interesting discovery: The land on which the church rests is zoned agricultural. That means Wild can have a whole lotta chickens, as well as pigs, goats, horses and cows, so long as it's for noncommercial use.
Before anyone goes hog wild, Skidmore wants to hold his summit, sometime this month, to discuss reasonable rules and other issues - like, for instance, the fact the neighborhood has "a lot of coyotes."
