City seeks to regulate bees, pets

Hives in neighborhoods set Council abuzz

Lorain City Council will consider new city laws for bees and pets in homes.

On Sept. 25, Council’s Police, Fire and Legislative Committee discussed additions to the rules governing animals and fowl in the city.

The full Council will consider placing a limit of five domestic animals per residence in the city. The rule would not count for puppies, kittens, hamsters, gerbils or other small pets that are cages or kept in aquariums.

But it was new laws about beehives that set the committee buzzing.

Hives will be considered nuisances and unlawful unless beekeepers comply with the new regulations:

• No parcel shall have more than three colonies of bees or beehives.

• Beehives must be at least 50 feet from any buildings and at least 20 feet from the property line.

• Beekeepers must comply with Ohio laws governing apiaries.

The city proposal was based on a similar rule in Fairview Park, said Ward 8 Councilman Joshua Thornsberry.

Thornsberry said he first encountered the bee situation in his ward at a residence on

Jaeger Road and found cities in Ohio may govern the distance between hives and buildings, but Lorain had no rules on the books.

Lorain police Officer Richard Broz, who specializes in animal-related cases, said bees are a beneficial insect.

But Broz advised against having many hives in the inner neighborhoods of Lorain where lot sizes are small.

“If you have a good piece of property, I mean, I don’t think there’s a problem,” he said.

Broz suggested a 75-foot limit between hives and buildings.

City officials downplayed the notion bees are swarming and creating trouble in Lorain.

Honeybees are not aggressive insects and the city likely has more beehives than people think, said Safety-Service Director Dan Given.

Given said he has a neighbor a block over with three hives that are not problematic.

“I don’t want to put an ordinance on the books that’s going to put somebody who has been doing something in their yard, not having any problems for years and years, and all of a sudden we’re saying that they’re outlaws and that they’re violating the codes,” Given said.

People are planting flower gardens to help honeybees, which should not be

mistaken for hornets, yellow jackets and other stinging insects, said Councilwoman-at-Large Mary Springowski.

“We’re just legislating everything to death,” Springowski said. “They’re bees.

“OK, you know, why do we need to put more legislation on the books when we are having a difficult time enforcing what we’ve got? Let’s fix what we’ve got first, then we can start addressing things. I don’t know that the administration has gotten all that many complaints about aggressive bees in the city.”

Ward 2 Councilman Dennis Flores questioned how the city would monitor possible sales of honey or hives for profit.

As for a beekeeper selling an occasional jar of honey, that is the least of the problems facing Lorain, Given said.

Council and the administration should not overthink the situation, Given said.

FILE Honey bees scurry through a hive and eat honey.