Normal council to discuss chicken coops, form-based code

The Normal City Council is expected to determine the fate of urban chicken coops and an optional form-based code for the town’s leg of the Main Street Corridor at its meeting Monday night.

Members also will consider offering a 1 percent rebate of the local share of the state’s sales tax to Normal residents or businesses purchasing a new electric vehicle through Dec. 31, 2013.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall, 100 E. Phoenix Ave.

Town staff is supporting an ordinance allowing up to four hens in an urban chicken coop. The planning commission voted 3-2 to recommend the ordinance to the council.

Among the concerns voiced at the public hearing was the potential for the spread of histoplasmosis from the chicken droppings. Histoplasmosis is an infection of the lungs, liver, spleen or central nervous system caused by inhaling or ingesting a fungus.

In a report to the council, Town Planner Mercy Davison said a medical researcher and university professor who specializes in the disease said the histoplasmosis fungus is found in soil across much of the Ohio Valley, including Normal.  A typical outbreak occurs when a significant amount of bird droppings, left undisturbed for many years, is disturbed.

The researcher said the risk of histoplasmosis from four backyard hens is quite low.

Town staff also is supporting the adoption of an optional form-based code for the Main Street Corridor. The planning commission recommended it 5-0.

If approved, developers of future projects along the Normal leg of the corridor would have the option of building under current code or the form-based code, which dictates design and use and envisions buildings close to the street with parking in the rear.

The council also will consider a 1 percent rebate for residents and businesses purchasing a new electric car. Assistant City Manager Geoff Fruin said assuming an average sales price of $30,000, the typical rebate would be $300. If 200 to 400 people applied for rebates over the next two years, it would total $60,000 to $120,000.

Normal is a partner in the Bloomington-Normal Electric Vehicle Task Force’s EVTown effort, which hopes to see 1,000 electric vehicles in the Twin Cities by 2014.