coop permit in Summerfield/Marion County Florida

[GClaudio]

I have recently been contacted by th county stating I have an unpermitted coop , I was wonderingif someone could please enlighten me on what I need to do in order to get this taken care of or another option other than a coop that yall may use in this area for your chickens

 

[Brooks_]

Odd that they didn't say exactly what the violation was and say what was permitted. Was this is writing/certified mail? Was it the city or county?

@SourRoses , do you have any insight for the area?

 

[rosemarythyme]

What did it say specifically? Did it actually state "unpermitted coop" (so maybe your area requires a permit for poultry) or unpermitted structure, which is a different matter? Like for my area anything under 200 sq ft without electricity doesn't require permits, over that (or wired for electric) you'd need permits for it.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

I'd ask them for clarification on what bylaw etc you need to abide by? then you can look up what to do to make it right.

 

[GClaudio]

Ty for the replies...it all is gibberish to me,I am going to their office for clarification.

 

[Brooks_]

Ty for the replies...it all is gibberish to me,I am going to their office for clarification.

Please do follow up here with what info you gain.

 

[SourRoses]

I'm a bit late, but thanks @Brooks_ ... and Hi neighbor!
This is usually a relaxed county as far as livestock go, since there are so many old heritage horse farms with city creeping up around it, mostly because of the farms. We recently moved to a farm that's right next to a subdivision, lol.
Granted, Summerfield being close to the Villages might throw a wrench in that, considering it's a rich folks retirement community and they can be rather fussy. So I'm not sure what your city rules may be. I know there are some towns that limit the amount of hens to 4, but that only applies within city limits, which can be rather small, as everything is so spread out.
So are you in city limits, OP? What's your zoning?

If the issue is the structure and not the chickens... We dealt with that once in South Florida. What we had to do was pay for engineered drawings and make the suggested changes to the coop. The only thing the engineer noted was the lack of hurricane ties. Those don't cost very much and were easy enough to add. Then we submitted the paperwork to the county and an inspector came out to make sure that it was done.

After that was resolved, the complaining neighbor was so furious they got a gang together to reinstate and fund the ancient, defunct homeowners association that we hadn't ever heard of. Even though the county had no chicken ordinances, they backed the HO up and gave us grief enough that my mom and the neighbor ended up doing contrasting interviews on the local news. We finally had to rehome the birds and decided to move up here where farms are plentiful.

Chances are high that the only reason your coop was noticed is that someone complained. So now you're stuck doing a deep dive into all the local rules to see what else they might hit you with, just make sure you don't throw money after a sinking ship. Please update us.