Chickens in Richmond, VA

Are there any updates on chickens and zoning in Richmond?
 

The Richmond City Council has advanced a request to the Mayor to put forward an amendment to the current ordinace to allow residence to have a few hens.  The mayor is in support of chickens and at least three, maybe four, members of council are in support of the effort.  I anticipate the ordinace to be changed for spring chick delivery. 

 

Specifically the land use standing committee and the full city council voted to request "the Chief Administrative Officer to conduct a comprehensive study of the laws and regulations concerning the raising, maintenance, and ownership of chickens and other poultry in the City of Richmond and to provide the Council with recommendations for amendments to such laws and regulations."

 

Contact your city council member and the mayor to urge them to support chickens in the City of Richmond. 

This is great news! Thanks for keeping us posted!
 

Wanted to give everyone an update in the status of chickens coming to Richmond Virginia. An Ordinace was introduced 11/26/2012. See, http://eservices.ci.richmond.va.us/applications/clerkstracking/orDetail.asp?NAV=1&PN= You can read the resultion here: http://eservices.ci.richmond.va.us/applications/clerkstracking/getPDF.asp?NO=2012-226 The summary is that by summer Richmond shoudl be raising chickens. Maximum of four, 15 feet from any neighbors, and a $60.00 annual fee. The Annual fee is much higher than we anticipated but hopefully we can get that reduced or at least income based. Next step is the Land Use, Housing and Transportation – January 22, 2013. then a Public Hearing on the 01/28/2012.

$60 for the application/permit fee (annually) seems a bit high. Meanwhile, you can license a dog or cat for $10 or so each... What does $60 get you in return?

 

One thing I was wondering about is if there is a size limit to the backyard parcel? While I support the urban chicken movement as a whole, I believe some city dwellers simply do not have the room to entertain a flock. Chickens stuffed in a coop 24 hrs a day is no life for the animal. 

 

I'd like to see someone foot a resolution to the Virginia Beach city council in the near future. The city hasn't been supportive of past efforts to legalize the urban movement, but on the same token, those who were pushing the issue weren't exactly good ambassadors (e.g., had 20+ chickens in a postage stamp city backyard and wanted to fuss w/ city officials) in introducing the movement to the masses. 

Those interested in joining the Virginia Beach movement should check out "4 Virginia Beach Hens" on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4VirginiaBeachHens. If you are referring to Tracy Okroy's chickens, please be aware she has connections to the 4 Virginia Beach Hens group but is not part of the leadership team at this point. Tracy is taking her case to the Virginia Supreme Court with representation by the Rutherford Institute. The Facebook group plans to make calls to City Council and attend a January meeting. I hope this helps, and I hope you'll get involved with them. They need all the help they can get.
 

Yes, I was referring to Tracy. I looked @ the 4 Virginia  Beach Hens FB page and see the group has some positive fwd momentum.

 

My only advice is to keep Tracy out of the City Chambers during the group's initial session w/ City Council. While there is nothing illegal in her being there, her past "run-ins" w/ city government and pending legal challenges do not present a favorable first impression for the group. It would be best for the group NOT to mention she is in fact a member of the group. Again, there is nothing saying she can't be affiliated w/ the group, however image is everything while the group tries to go from the crawl to the walk stage.

 

Simply present the group's proposal, cite Chesapeake as the most recent shiny example of open-minded and civic oriented govt, along w/ a few other similar sized cities, and debunk a few of the common myths of city chicken keeping. Short, sweet, to the point.

 

Most of the folks on the council have never stepped foot on a farm and did a real honest day's work working the land.  
 

Thanks for the advice FenikT, that's exactly what we plan to do. Three of us will be speaking to the Virginia Beach city council open forum on January 8th. One is a small business owner, the other is a Russian Orthodox pastor, and I am in IT. In Virginia Beach we have to get one of the council members to work with us to bring it before an official session. All we can do at this point is speak at the monthly open sessions, make calls to council members, and recruit new members. Future plans for city council include latter from more prominent local business leaders, as well as real estate agents, and small business owners.

 

We just passed 150 Facebook "likes" so we're making good progress. Continue to help us spread the word if you know anyone down here who is like minded. Thanks! 

 

-Bryan

http://www.facebook.com/4VirginiaBeachHens

Unfortunately you'll never get any love from my district's rep, Louis Jones (Bayside). I'm surprised Ms. Henley has not stepped up to the plate on this one, considering farming is what got Virginia Beach on the map when it was still just the outback of Princess Anne County. The Council's two outcasts (Desteph and Moss) probably would never try to champion the effort because they are always doing damage control for their dissenting opinions on routine business. I suspect the council will continue to backburner this in favor of working on the arena and light rail debacles. At this juncture, they can't afford to break anyone away in the back office to rewrite a simple code. Go figure... In the mean time, I will keep my flock off the code Nazi radar here in Bayside. I've gotten nothing but positive comments about them from my neighbors, who have tons of questions and wish they could start their own flocks (but can't due to lack of fence, afraid of the po-po, code violations, have rowdy dogs, etc.).