Has the city come to inspect your coop?? - Page 2

Usually even with structures that don't need a permit, you must honor the setback (the amount of distance a structure can be from the fenceline/property line.  My Dads a contractor/designs houses.  If someone complains, the setback could be an issue even if you don't need a permit.  That said, most people ignore setbacks.

Honestly, (if it were MY city) we don't give a flying monkey about your coop. I personally am NOT going to waist my time measuring your 8 foot tall LOOKING coop, or give you grief over six inches. Infact, the only time you will even SEE me is if your neighbors complained AND I see an issue with how you are keeping your birds. IE-I am going to check out your coop through your fence before I even bother you. I have way too many other calls to worry about six inches of violation

A really easy way to deter any possible complaints is to put up a privacy fence. If I don't SEE a violation, it doesn't exist. If I don't smell a violation it doesn't exist. If I DO smell something or hear something off, I may knock on your door and ask you to show me your set up and go from there. I am certainly not going to be able to tell that your coop is not 8 ft without measuring it, and Im not gonna bother to measure how tall it is unless you tick me off. Same goes for measuring the distance from your neighbor's property line. The chances of me making you "remodel" if I was your inspector are slim to none.

My city requires 150 square feet per dog if the dog is to be kept in a dog run. If my citizens have a 10 ft x 10 ft dog run, and the dog(s) are not overly crowded, stressed, or showing signs of distress or boredom, I am not going to make them find a way to add an additional 50 sq feet.

well, animal services officer/inspector...but chickens fall under our jurisdiction, and though your issues are more about your building, in my city, if it is housing for animals, we are a division of code compliance, and code pawns it off on animal services (as does city council), making it our problem. They don't really want to deal with it. Livestock (other than poultry) techinically falls under the sherriff's department here, but if it has anything to do with animals, we are "asked" to respond. I am betting it is at least similar in your city.

As far as hearing something off, to us that means if we knock on your door, and we hear 30 barking dogs inside, we are going to want to know whats up. Same goes for birds. If you have a twelve square foot yard, and it sounds like there are 30 chickens back there, we are going to want to know why. If it sounds like five? I don't care, and am not going to waist my precious time bugging you to gain access to your back yard (which I have to have your permission for) to inspect your five chickens unless I have gotten the complaint multiple times (reguarless of how many other officers have gotten the same complaint earlier. If I don't know what calls they have responded to, I go by how many times I personally have recieved the call).

If your city is like mine, your inspectors will be like mine, and as long as your coop is basically the dimesions it is supposed to be, and your animals are healthy, happy, and not over crowded, you shouldn't have any problems.