While Richmond and many other urban areas, including San Francisco allow beekeeping and have no history of problems, rural Oakley’s City Council rejected the idea as too dangerous. Go figure.

Oakley rejects suburban beekeeping proposal

By Rowena Coetsee Contra Costa Times
Posted:   06/13/2012 11:00:08 AM PDT
Updated:   06/13/2012 02:06:41 PM PDT

Oakley leaders have quashed a proposal to allow backyard beekeeping, deciding that the hobby could create more trouble than it's worth.
The City Council on Tuesday voted 3-2 to reject Councilman Randy Pope's suggestion that Oakley lift its ban on hives in residential areas and allow up to two per lot.
The city's municipal code permits beekeeping only in areas zoned for agricultural use, making Oakley one of the few cities anywhere that expressly prohibits beekeeping in neighborhoods, according to Pope.
The councilman, who long has been interested in managing bees and currently maintains three hives outside city limits, generated an enthusiastic response from some quarters: All 18 of the comments submitted via the city's website before the meeting -- including two from individuals in Texas and Indiana -- supported the practice of suburban beekeeping on a small scale.
"People are paying attention to what we're doing here," said Pope, who rattled of a list of major U.S. cities from Chicago to Denver to San Francisco that allow beekeeping.
A number of those who emailed the city cited the key role that bees play in pollinating the country's food supply and noted that even tiny beekeeping operations could help offset a critical nationwide shortage of the insects.
Mayor Kevin Romick also wholeheartedly endorsed Pope's idea, pointing out that bees already are a presence in any yard that has flowers.
"The work they do is vital to us having vegetables and fruit trees," he said. "Without the bees, they don't exist."
But other council members -- along with a handful of constituents who contacted the city with fears about children's safety -- weren't as keen on allowing colonies of the insects in densely populated areas.
Councilwoman Pat Anderson didn't immediately reject the draft ordinance Pope presented, but said the city should require prospective beekeepers to buy a license.
The revenue would offset the cost of periodically inspecting their yards to ensure that they're complying with the rules as well as cover the expense of notifying neighbors that there were beehives nearby, Anderson said.
Councilwoman Carol Rios, on the other hand, was emphatic that she didn't want the city becoming "beekeeping police" by putting itself in a position where it must monitor the number of hives people keep.
She also voiced concern about the city's liability if a child had a fatal allergic reaction to a bee sting, and wondered about the possibility of the docile honey bee mating with more aggressive species.
Pope explained that the highly defensive Africanized bee doesn't exist in this area and, contrary to popular belief, the European honey bee rarely directs its venom at people.
"They're only going to sting you if you squish them," he said, adding that bees often are mistakenly blamed for the pain that wasps or yellow jackets inflict.
It's extremely rare for someone to die from a bee sting, Pope said, and individuals who know they're highly allergic would have epinephrine on hand to counter the reaction.
At one point, Councilman Jim Frazier suggested Pope had an ulterior motive for proposing the new rules.
"So you brought this forward so you could do this?" he asked.
"Yes and no," Pope responded, explaining that he wanted to have hives on his property, but also make it convenient for others to keep a close eye on the health of their bee colonies instead of having to travel to rural areas to manage them.
As the council deliberated whether to amend its ordinance to allow bees or strike it from the books -- a move that would make the city subject to the county's rules on beekeeping -- City Manager Bryan Montgomery said one option would be for the city to take a "no harm, no foul" approach, whereby code enforcement would investigate any complaints that beehives generate but not go looking for people violating the ordinance.
The likelihood of the city receiving many complaints is slim, Montgomery added.
"I think I like your suggestion of letting it be," Anderson said.
Rios suggested that the council reconsider the matter next year.