Bluffton council may soon address an animal zoning ordinance.

Council’s ordinance committee, meeting on April 29, discussed criteria for an ordinance proposed by Mitch Kingsley, according to the committee’s minutes of the meeting.

The minutes were part of the recent council agenda, and the council voted to go forward with an ordinance, although one is not yet ready for council’s action.

According to the committee minutes:
“We want to allow as much freedom as possible for people to enjoy animals; the limits on this freedom arise when hosting the animals becomes a nuisance to residents of the village.

“We are exploring an approach, which requires people with non-traditional pets to register with the village.

“In addition, we would need a means to determine in the most objective way possible what is a nuisance.

“At this stage we want to lay out certain issues, which would be a clear nuisance like foul odors, or continuous loud noises. But we know there needs to be a system for a few cases where neighbors are in a dispute.”

The minutes noted that one reference to the ordinance discussion is information taken from a St. Marys, Ohio, ordinance.