BROOKINGS — Councilors at Tuesday night’s Brookings City Council meeting were all abuzz about a beekeeping ordinance that would allow residents to keep beehives on their property.
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BROOKINGS — Councilors at Tuesday night’s Brookings City Council meeting were all abuzz about a beekeeping ordinance that would allow residents to keep beehives on their property.
Ordinance 23-011 ultimately passed on a 7-0 vote, but not without discussion beforehand.
“I’m going to vote for this, with some misgivings,” Councilor Wayne Avery said. “We need to be concerned with the rights not only of the people that want to have bees, but the people that maybe live next door to them but don’t want to have them.”
He continued, “… I think there are some real issues with it that we will maybe discover as we go along and maybe our regulations will have to be a little more robust. It’s a good thing as far as the science of it and teaching young people about nature and that kind of thing … we’ll see how it goes.”
“We’ll give those bees a short leash,” Avery finished with a flash of humor, generating laughter from others in the chamber. “They step out of line, that’s it for them!”
Councilor Joey Collins, too, expressed worries. “I still have reservations about this as well. I’m worried about people’s pets and little kids in the backyard on their playground equipment and stuff,” Collins said. “Since the last meeting, I’ve received no phone calls or emails from anybody not wanting this, so I’ll go ahead and vote yes for it.”
Now, before everyone goes rushing out to put beehives in their yards, know that there are some rules that will have to be followed, including:
“I visited the (South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources) site and if you just search ‘state of South Dakota apiary program,’ they have a really robust site that kind of outlines how folks that work with bees are certified, what the regulations through the state are and how robust this program is in South Dakota,” Councilor Nick Wendell noted. “If there are folks … who have some questions about beekeeping in their municipalities, that site really has a lot of valuable information. I learned a lot just by visiting it.”
The website in question can be found at https://bit.ly/3MDAXlq.
“I just want to thank those who worked on this ordinance,” Councilor Holly Tilton Byrne said. “I think between this and the efforts around No Mow May, I think it’s really exciting to see what we’re doing in our community to help support pollinators and support those who want to support pollinators as well.”
She added that, “I noticed that down in the entrance of our building here, there are couple of the No Mow May signs available, so if anybody is going to participate in that and would like to post a sign in their yard, feel free to grab one.
“Just again, thanks to those who worked on this and brought this forward. It’s exciting to see our agenda,” Tilton Byrne finished.
The ordinance was the brainchild of an effort that involved the Brookings School District, the Brookings Sustainability Council and city personnel, including City Attorney Steven Britzman.
According to a City Council memo, beekeeping provides benefits including beeswax, honey and “numerous learning opportunities about bee patterns.”
In other business on Tuesday, councilors:
Land transfer: OK’d the transfer of land at Hillcrest Park to the Brookings School District on a 7-0 vote to help facilitate the construction of a new Hillcrest Elementary School. The city will be appropriately compensated, per information in a memo found in PDF form at https://bit.ly/3zRGJrM.
Brookings Marketplace: Agreed, on a 7-0 vote, to approve the initial development plan put forward by Ryan Companies US Inc. near the Interstate 29/Sixth Street interchange. The company plans to redevelop the 26.2-acre site with a mix of retail uses, including a 148,500-square-foot retail building.
— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.
