L.A. City Council Postpones Urban Beekeeping Vote Till February

The Los Angeles City Council put off a vote Tuesday on allowing people to keep beehives in their yards.

The scheduled vote was put off until next month to accommodate other items on today's agenda, an aide to City Councilman Jose Huizar said.

Huizar chairs the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which last month called for city staff to report back in 60 days on the best ways to allow "beekeeping" activity in single-family residential areas.

City Council members who want to overturn the city's prohibition on beekeeping in those areas said promoting the practice will "foster a healthier bee population."

The bee population has been reported to be "in steep decline," prompting concerns that the local economy and the state's agricultural industry could be negatively affected, according to a related motion introduced last month by Huizar.

His motion calls for city staff to come up with "humane and non- lethal" ways to relocate or remove unwanted bee hives to serve as alternatives to existing methods used by government agencies, "given the usefulness of bees to California's agricultural industry and the growing popularity of urban beekeeping."