North Cook News

At its March 7 council meeting, the village board of Skokie was presented with an ordinance amendment to two areas of its village code, affecting dog limits and bird feeding in the village. 

After review of the ordinance and some requests from residents, village staff is proposing to increase the number of dogs allowed in residences in the village, raising the limit to two dogs in an apartment or condo and three dogs in a single family residence. The staff has been approached by residents looking to add a third dog to their family for a variety of reasons, and after discussions with police, animal control, and other municipalities who have increased the limit without any additional problems or nuisance calls, the board felt it would be a good decision to make. 

"I’ve been through this before in my previous positions in previous municipalities, and we’ve increased limitations to what we’re recommending today and we didn’t see any negatives effects at all," Village Manager Jonathon Lockerby said. "No additional nuisance calls. The important thing to remember is animal control and the police department do a really good job enforcing the ordinance, and on a case-by-case basis we’ll continue to work on those things and educate residents and work with them to make sure we limit the issues."

The ordinance amendment also included a restriction of bird feeding in the village. The village staff is recommending that platform feeders no longer be allowed in an attempt to cut down on wildlife nuisance calls and the presence of rats in the village. The village has also had a huge influx in the number of birds, which the board is looking to reduce. Other types of feeders will still be allowed, just those that are catered to birds and not accessible to nuisance wildlife. 

Lockerby answered questions from village board members about the changes. He confirmed that ground feeding for birds is already prohibited in village code. He also said they had not considered increasing the limits for cats in the village as no residents had approached them about it, however they would be open to considering it if there was community interest. 

Police Chief Brian Baker also spoke, assuring the village board of his support for increasing the amount of dogs and his confidence in his officers and relationship with animal control to handle all situations. 

He said he has rarely had any issues with residents with multiple dogs in the past. 

The board passed both amendments.