Juneau code allows six hens. A Silver Street family is asking for 230 animals.

Juneau lets a homeowner keep six hens and three farm animals. Shawn Kantola is asking for room for up to 200 chickens and 30 other farm animals — and the Planning Commission takes up his request Tuesday.

Kantola and his wife are building a house on a 2.16-acre lot on Silver Street, and he's seeking a permit for small-scale farming there, including butchering in an on-site workshop. He told the commission last month the big numbers are a ceiling, not a plan — realistically 10 to 30 laying hens, a rooster or two, up to 100 meat chickens at a time, and a few pigs. He asked for the maximum, he said, because reapplying is slow and expensive, and noted the permit wouldn't require him to keep any animals at all.

Neighbors aren't sold on the scale. Seven of the eight people who spoke at the August hearing objected, raising worries about smell, crowing roosters and bears. One longtime chicken-keeper nearby said predators get his birds even through electric fencing. Another neighbor measured the area's daytime noise at 33 to 43 decibels and noted a proposed condition would allow up to 70 at the property line until 11:30 pm. The written record leans the other way, though — two of three letters on file support the permit.

Borough staff recommend approving it with a list of conditions: electric fencing wherever poultry are kept, no odor detectable past the property line for more than 48 hours, slaughtering kept out of neighbors' sight, and manure composted or hauled off at least once a year. The commission could also change those conditions, deny the permit, or put the decision off again — which it's already done once, when only five of its members showed up in August and approval takes five votes.

The commission's call is final unless someone appeals within 20 days. Public comment has closed, though commissioners can reopen it if they choose.