birdwrangler057
Songster
Boy, you sure like loge posts!!!!Well, speaking as a former town official (4 years on Planning and Zoning and 4 years as a town council person) I have to try to pull the plug on that assumption. The fastest way NOT to get town approval would be to stand before them and try to argue the old pet vs livestock points. The first thing one of the members is going to do is ask who decides if a chicken is a pet or livestock. That could lead to folks coming in with all kinds of questionable critters and calling them "pets". No town officials are going to open that can of worms. For the most part, those people didn't get elected to their positions because they are gullible, and your best bet is simply to acknowledge that chickens are poultry. If you try pulling the wool over their eyes, everything you say from that point on is suspect.
We faced that when the council I served on crafted Cowley's first ever animal ordinance. Suddenly everybody's critters were pets. Cows, sheep, llamas, horses, mules, ducks....it didn't make any difference. If folks housed them, fed them and took care of them, in their minds that made them "pets." Well, that and the fact that we were requiring purchase of a permit to keep livestock in town - they really didn't like having to buy a permit for each animal! We argued back that we have ordinances about dog licensing and a permit was no different. Of course, then they came back with, "See, having to license them like dogs makes them pets." That could have gone around and around for months!! But a clear definition in the ordinance of what is livestock in the eyes of the town put a stop to that, and prevented any more steers from suddenly being "beloved pets".
We finally got somewhere when we appointed a few of the "livestock" people and a few anti-critters-in-town folks to a committee. We told them to craft what they thought was a fair outline, appoint a spokesperson, and bring us back what they came up with. They did a great job!! They brought us what they thought was fair, we went over it and then we worked on re-writing the draft for the new ordinance, taking their suggestions into account. It worked. We now have a viable animal ordinance in town, a minimal fee for permitting livestock, and a clear definition of livestock vs pets. There is strength in numbers, so you might want to adopt that approach. Before the meeting, find out if anyone else in your area is wanting to raise chickens, put a plan together with them, and then appoint one person to speak for you at the meeting. All of you can go, but if only one person does the talking it makes for a smoother meeting.
Your best bet is to go in there acknowledging in your own mind that you know poultry doesn't meet the "pet" test and as someone else said, take copies of local ordinances from nearby communities as well as your plans (a hard copy) for how your birds will be housed and cared for. Where will your coop be? How big? How close to fences, your home and outbuildings, neighbors will it be? Will it meet setback requirements? What kind of drainage is around the location of your coop? What are your plans for sanitation? Why do you want to house chickens? Have you talked to your neighbors and are they okay with it?
You need to understand that they may throw some limits in if they approve - no roosters is pretty standard, as are limits to the numbers of birds they might allow. Your job, from the moment you have approval, is to follow those things to the letter, even if you think they are stupid and unfair. You are, after all, laying the groundwork for not just your chickens but for others who may want to get a few chickens themselves.
Oh,and one other thing. Don't go in there and tell them what you think the restrictions should be, as you mentioned in an earlier post. That's THEIR decision to make and unless they ask you about it specifically, they won't like you coming and telling them their jobs! I know there's a lot to take in here, and every council and every town is different. This all sounds like tons of groundwork, but break it down into it's smallest parts. You've got this! Good luck!!
