Solana Beach restaurants will have to swap out plastic plates, utensils and polystyrene foam containers for reusable or compostable alternatives under an ordinance the City Council approved Wednesday, Oct. 14.
The council also voted to let residents keep chickens and bees in more neighborhoods, The Coast News Group first reported. Both ordinances take effect Nov. 14.
The single-use plastics ban passed unanimously. It requires all food service ware distributed in the city to be reusable or compostable, according to a city flyer on the ordinance. Paper containers and straws without plastic coatings and untreated wood products are allowed. Plant-based materials such as those made from corn or potato starch and No. 7 plastics are not.
City staff recommended a six-month grace period for affected businesses.
The ordinance expands a 2019 rule that already prohibited non-recyclable and non-compostable food service items. Solana Beach became the first city in San Diego County to discourage single-use plastic bags in 2012 and restricted polystyrene food containers in 2015, according to city records.
The chickens-and-bees ordinance passed 3-1, with Mayor Lesa Heebner absent from the meeting.
Deputy Mayor Jill MacDonald cast the lone dissenting vote. She said backyard chickens could attract coyotes and mountain lions, which she had encountered in her own yard this year.
"I don't want my neighbors to have bees 20 feet from my property line … or chickens 20 feet from my property line, I like to sleep in the mornings," MacDonald said at the meeting.
The ordinance reduces required setbacks for apiaries and chicken enclosures from 25 feet to 20 feet. Properties bordering common open space get a 10-foot minimum instead.
Beekeeping had been prohibited in all residential zones. The new rules allow apiaries in the city's ER-1, ER-2, LR and LMR zones. Chickens were already permitted in ER-1, ER-2 and LR zones and can now also be kept in LMR, MR and MHR zones.
Planning Director Noah Alvey said no special permits would be required for chickens. The city will treat them like household pets, and enforcement will be complaint-based, Alvey said.
