The Hoquiam City Council voted Monday to allow hobby beekeeping within city limits.

Ward 3 Councilwoman Shannon Patterson has been working on the proposal for some time and Monday addressed concerns about the safety of beehives in the city.

“Honeybees aren’t aggressive and won’t sting unless the hive is actually threatened,” she told the council.

City Attorney Steve Johnson said there is a state law passed a few years ago “that pretty much grants immunity to people who have beehives in their yards from any lawsuit from someone who was stung by a bee,” and the same goes for the city, which can also not be held liable for bee stings.

Ward 2 Councilman Steven Puvogel said he contemplated long and hard on the ordinance and he was “grateful this one got quite a bit of public comment.” The type of bee used in hobby beekeeping — European honeybees — is not indigenous to the local ecosystem, which prompted comment about their introduction impacting native bees.

Ward 6 Councilwoman Elizabeth Reid said she was “surprised by that letter, because the European strain has been here for several hundred years.” She said her opinion, and that of other hobby beekeepers, is that native honeybees have been decimated by disease by up to 80% of their population in recent years, “and honeybees are absolutely required for all fruit and vegetable crops in North America. Without them the food crop would be decimated. I think hobby beekeepers are actually helping re-establish bees in the wild.”

Ward 1 Councilman Paul McMillan said he didn’t think the ordinance got enough public comment to gauge the community’s view of in-city beehives.

“I’ll be voting no because I don’t think the citizens have had a chance to really talk about it,” he said, suggesting the ordinance could be put off for a year to gather more information and input when the council is allowed to operate normally and public comment can be taken at meetings. Patterson countered that nine comments were received on the topic, a decent number regardless of how they are submitted.

Ward 4 Councilman Greg Grun also voiced his opposition, for public safety reasons.

“I believe these hives would pose a danger to people, especially people that are allergic to bees,” he said. “I wouldn’t want my family living next door to a property with beehives. I think it’s a public-safety issue so I’m voting no on this.”

In the end, Grun and McMillan voted no on the ordinance, while the other eight council members in attendance voted to approve.

The ordinance outlines a list of requirements for the location of beehives, and how they are to be constructed, and how they are managed for swarm prevention. Mayor Ben Winkelman, after the vote, said the city’s Public Safety Committee did a great deal of research on the safety of hobby beekeeping in drafting the ordinance.