City Council Looks into Urban Beekeeping Ordinance

A City Council committee Tuesday took the first steps toward allowing residents to keep beehives in their yards for the production of honey and wax and to pollinate their gardens.

The Planning and Land Use Management Committee directed city staff to report back in two months on the best ways to allow "beekeeping" activity in single-family residential areas.

Council members who last year proposed overturning the city's prohibition on beekeeping in those areas said promoting the practice will "foster a healthier bee population."

The bee population has been reported to be "in steep decline," prompting concerns that the local economy and the state's agricultural industry would be negatively affected, according to a related motion introduced Tuesday by Councilman Jose Huizar.

His motion calls for city staff to come up with "humane and non-lethal" ways to relocate or remove unwanted bee hives to serve as alternatives to existing methods used by government agencies, "given the usefulness of bees to California's agricultural industry and the growing popularity of urban beekeeping."