Title
Municipal Community Beekeeping Apiary
History
Staff are seeking Village Board direction to implement and choose a suitable site within the Village initially as pilot municipal community beekeeping apiary. The proposed program would create a controlled location where qualified participants may maintain honeybee hives under Village-issued permits and defined safety, insurance maintenance, and nuisance-control requirements.
Village regulations currently do not provide a clear framework for managed beekeeping. The accompanying draft text amendment would establish definitions and regulations for apiaries, beekeepers, colonies, hives, and related equipment; prohibit beekeeping elsewhere in the Village, and allow it only as an accessory use within a publicly owned community garden in the Open Spaces District.
A community apiary can support pollinator habitat; prairie and garden plantings, environmental education, and community engagement while providing residents who cannot maintain hives at home with a designated and regulated location. Centralizing activity also allows the Village to establish setbacks, fencing, screening, training, insurance, inspection, swarm response, and removal procedures.
Proposed Pilot Program
-Begin with four to eight active hives in total; with no permit holder maintaining more than two hives unless approved by the Village.
-Limit the pilot to a publicly owned community garden within a Village Open Space District.
-Require annual Village permits and annual Illinois Department of Agriculture hive registration.
-Require evidence of beekeeping education, a signed application and hold harmless/ indemnity agreement and provides a $1 million liability umbrella policy with the Village of Orland Park, its officials, employees & agents named as additional insured on a Primary & Non- Contributory basis.
Require participants to provide and maintain their hives, bees, equipment, water source, inspection records, sanitation, and swarm-response capability.
Reserve Village authority to inspect, require corrective action, suspend or revoke permits, re-queen colonies, and relocate or remove unsafe, aggressive, diseased, abandoned, or non compliant hives.
The preferred site should have low pedestrian activity, natural screening, staff access, a reliable water source, and meaningful separation from homes, schools, trails, shelters, and active recreation. Preliminary planning ranges are shown below and should be confirmed through field measurements, legal review, and final ordinance drafting.
Playgrounds: 330-500 feet
Residential Homes: 150-300 feet
Athletic Fields: 300-500 feet
Multi-use trails- 150-200 feet
Picnic Shelters: 250+ feet
Schools: 500 feet
Physical improvements should include a six-to-eight-foot perimeter fence with a locked gate or native, dense landscape screening, upward-directing flyway barriers, hive entrances oriented away from public areas, a dedicated water source, and educational signage.
Honeybees thrive in full morning sun with protection from harsh prairie winds. Hives must be oriented toward the south/southest and sheltered from prevailing winter winds with continuous access to a dedicated water source to avoid migration to public water sources (i.e. water functions) or neighboring properties.
Potential locations include:
Schumack Farm, 139th St. & 110 Ave.: The site is approximately 761 feet from residential homes and more than 1,000 feet from playgrounds and backs up to McGinnis Slough. Schumack Farm offers excellent separation from surrounding development but would require significant tree clearing, construction of parking and maintenance access, and installation of trails and supporting infrastructure.
Arbor Lake, 15400 Wolf Road: The proposed location is approximately 460 feet from residential homes and approximately 70 feet from an existing multi-use trial. While the site offers strong ecological value, it would likely require tree clearing, improved maintenance access, evaluation of trail separation, and development of parking access improvements.
Dr Marsh, 155th & 113th Ave.: The site is approximately 1,100 feet from residential homes and includes existing parking, trails, and a pavilion. An apiary could be accommodated with selective clearing of trees and brush, installation of an access path, and evaluation of appropriate separation from the pavilion and trail system.
Stellwagen Farm, 17701 108th Ave.: As one of the Village historic farm properties, Stellwagen farm provides a unique opportunity to integrate beekeeping with agricultural heritage and environmental education. The site has the potential to support pollinator habitat while complementing existing educational programming, native plantings, and historic interpretation. The location would require evaluation of setbacks from adjacent uses, parking availability, maintenance access, water availability, and any site improvements necessary to safely accommodate a community apiary.
Staff recommend a one-year pilot program capped at eight total hives with individual permit holders limited to one to two hives. A small four-hive apiary introduces 80,000 to 200,000 pollinators into the local ecosystem while remaining highly manageable for staff oversight.
Following a successful pilot review, year two could be scaled up to 12 total hives.
Potential risk management and operational controls include:
-Queens must come from stock selected for gentleness and low swarming tendencies; aggressive colonies must be re-queened or removed.
-Participants must use accepted best management practices, maintain inspection records, and respond to swarms originating from their colonies within 24 hours of notice.
-Hives must comply with the Illinois Bees and Apiaries Act and other applicable state requirements.
-The Village may remove abandoned or unmanaged hives and recover associated costs from the permit holder.
-Permits may be suspended or revoked for unsafe conditions, lapse of insurance, repeated violations, or conduct detrimental to the community apiary.
To offset administrative oversight, staff propose an annual participant fee as follows:
-Resident: $150 per beekeeper, annually, for up to two hives.
-Non-resident: $225 per beekeeper, annually, for up to two hives.
Staff recommend authorizing the next phase of planning and evaluation of Schumack Farm, Stellwagen Farm, Arbor Lake, Dr. Marsh, and any other suitable Village-owned properties before selecting a final pilot location. This approach allows field verification, neighborhood outreach, legal review, insurance evaluation, environmental review, site-specific cost estimates, and completion of the final ordinance prior to implementation.
Financial Impact
Capital and operating costs will depend on the selected site and may include fencing, gate hardware, landscape screening, signage, water service or receptacles, access improvements, parking, security, and ongoing staff administration. Staff will return with a site-specific cost estimates before implementation.
Recommended Action/Motion
I move to recommend to the Village Board to authorize staff to proceed with detailed site evaluations, neighborhood and public outreach, ordinance refinement, and operational program development for a pilot Community Beekeeping Apiary, incorporating the preliminary siting criteria, participant requirements, risk-management provisions, and proposed annual fee structure of $150 for residents and $225 for non-residents, and to return to the Village Board with a final site recommendation, implementation costs, program rules, and text amendment for consideration.