Great Goat Debate to Return to Council Tonight

They're back ... not quite back on the hilltop on Second West, but waiting, watching, wondering .. if the humans on Prince Rupert City Council will let them into the community.

The Goats of the Moby Dick will make some news at tonight's City Council Session, the topic the last item on the night's official agenda, offering an opportunity for Councillors to revisit the themes past of livestock within the city limits.

The topic made its way to tonight's session as part of a report from the city's planning department related to a Temporary Use Permit Application.

The Report from Planner Rodolfo Paras, observing how the applicant Teresa Lee, owner of the Moby Dick, is seeking a Temporary Use Permit to allow for two live goats in the fenced in property for up to three years.

Should Council choose to allow the application to move forward, the public will have opportunity to join in on the Great Goat Debate as part of the public notification process.

The full documentation from the Agenda includes a letter from Ms. Lee seeking opportunity for her Goats to experience an urban life in exchange for some landscaping tasks, as well as a drawing of their proposed home adjacent the bluffs of Second Ave West.

As we noted in July, the Moby Dick Goats made for a return to the property this past summer, apparently an unsanctioned period of grazing from the notes in the report. 

The Goats last made for some news making in 2019, when the City Council of the day ordered them off to the back country  ... the promise of the time that of a review of the livestock themes for urban areas.

April 2021 -- Food Security, Urban Farming and Backyard Chickens themes gained much attention from Public Hearing on future community plans  
June 2019 -- Council sets report plans in motion on themes of small livestock 
June 2019 -- Livestock review ahead for City Council amid short lived stay of the Moby Dick goats 

Whether the Goats return heralds the launch of the larger livestock discussion for the city may be revealed as part of Council's review of the report.

More notes on tonight's Council Session can be reviewed here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.