City OK’S permit for two goats

The City of Ukiah recently approved a livestock permit allowing two goats to remain in the backyard of a home in the 1000 block of North Oak Street.

The goats came to the attention of the city when the neighbor next- door complained about the animals, describing them as smelling bad and attracting flies, and expressing concern about them eating her landscaping. Later when the process for approving livestock permits came before the Ukiah City Council, the neighbor, Ruth Van Antwerp, requested that the city cease allowing any livestock animals to be kept within city limits.

However, the City Council voted instead to approve a new permitting process for residents

wanting to keep livestock on their properties, an option City Manager Sage Sangiacomo described as important to preserve the “agricultural nature of our community. Certainly we don’t want to create nuisances within our residential community and disrupt harmony, and that’s why a permitting process is the best of all worlds to be able to allow (such animals) where appropriate, and to deny (them) where it is not.”

The owner of the two goats, Angel Schramer, then applied for a permit to keep the animals, and the permit was considered by city Zoning Administrator Craig Schlatter at a recent hearing.

During the hearing, city staff said they had visited where the goats lived and determined the animals “would not create a hazard to public health or safety, and did not constitute a public or private nuisance, or otherwise seriously and injuriously affect living conditions or property values in adjacent or neighboring properties.”

In the staff report for the hearing of the Zoning Administrator, planning staff noted that “the animals have been altered, wethered and debudded, to make them calmer. During the site visit, staff witnessed a flat, clean pen, with a six-foot wooden fence between the yard and the adjacent parcels, with a shorter, wire fence enclosing the animals. Both fences appear to be in sound condition. There are no platforms or gathered debris upon which the goats could climb to escape the pen. There were no nuisance insects noted during the site visit. The animals were calm, curious and gentle upon approach.”

Van Antwerp spoke at the hearing, explaining that she was supportive of the permit being granted as long as certain conditions were met, such as that “all animals at the property be kept warm and dry.”