Model Ordinance

[jbouvier]

Dear Backyard Chickens Forum:

I am a Visiting Professor of Legal Writing at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. I also volunteer with several urban agriculture organizations and have been participating in efforts to get our City to change its ordinance to allow for back-yard chickens. We have held several forums and talked to our mayor and City Council, but they are not prepared for the change. In researching this issue, I was surprised by how little information is out there concerning how many cities came to ban chickens, how to persuade a city to allow chickens, and model ordinances to share with the City that will satisfy both chicken activists and city council members concerned with change.

I am interested in helping to develop a model ordinance for Cities to pass, and materials to help activists understand how City government works and how to get Cities to pass these ordinances. It appears to me that you have gone a long way on this site and I applaud your work. I am wondering if I could talk with you about the knowledge and experience you have accumulated and what you believe should be in a model ordinance.

You can reach me at [email protected]. I appreciate any time or guidance you can share with me.

Warm regards,

Jaime Bouvier

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

Wow! Thanks Jaime...we need more people like you that have the expertise and "legaleese" to help those odinances get rewritten.
Be sure to post what the end result is up here please. I don't have anything for you...as we are still in the midst of our battle.

and Thankyou on the behalf of the many you will end up helping.
Some of the things I have seen that satisfy both sides.
A limited amount of Hens 6 - 12
No roosters (although in NY roosters are allowed to have congicul (sp) visits LOL)
reasonable set backs from others house and property lines (50 ft is considered norm)
No noise or smell complaints
No chickens running loose on other peoples property


There is a lot of miss information out there about preditors being attracted , smell, diseases spread, and having to have a rooster to enable the hen to lay eggs

I am sure as more people see this post some of the great stuff they have written will get linked to or I will find it for you.

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

This is helpful also from the sticky at the top of this page Chicken LORE project

http://media.timesfreepress.com/docs/2009/01/Ordinance_research_paper.pdf

 

[jbouvier]

Thanks so much for this information. I would be interested in learning what kind of ordinance you are trying to pass in Florida. What kinds of restrictions do you think are a good idea? What kind of restrictions are you willing to comply with? And what kind of restrictions are just too much?

Thanks again,

Jaime

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

The biggest thing we want is to allow BYC in residential areas and we also want them to remove the words chickens, fowl or poultry from the Livestock description. We have nothing written up as to what the ordinance should say. at the present it only allows chickens on Ag land. We have a Vote section on this page in the Newspaper and more than 300 votes on petitions.
http://www.news-press.com/article/2...-rules-chickens?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

Wink TV news from 2 weeks ago
http://www.winknews.com/Local-Flori...rvive-tough-economy-cited-by-Code-Enforcement

Fox4 news

http://www.fox4now.com/story/14900550/viewers-cry-fowl-on-law-on-families-raising-chickens

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

Quote:
100 + yard setbacks are really hard to manage for most residential areas so 50 is more reasonable in that regard...300 feet...wow impossible and done on purpose.
under 6 chickens doesnt provide enough eggs for a larger family or to share with neighbours
no roosters is ok

This is what it says for Ft Myers (which is part of Lee County Fl)

Sec. 54-5. Keeping certain animals and fowl in all residential districts. The keeping of any live hog, pig, chicken, goose, turkey, guinea fowl, duck, peafowl or domestic or domesticated fowl within 300 feet of any dwelling in the city is hereby prohibited and declared a nuisance injurious to the health and welfare. (Code 1963, § 19-10; Code 1991, § 11-5; Ord. No. 3109, § 3, 2-3-2003)

If you go to this link it shows all the states and then the what the city will or will not allowhttps://www.backyardchickens.com/laws/search.php?State=FL​

 

[BlakesFarm]

Check out this video:

http://www2.wspa.com/news/2011/jun/28/spartanburg-considers-allowing-chickens-96009-vi-84493/


We are trying to get the law changed in my hometown. Luckily I am outside of the city limits.





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[ChooksinChoppers]

Good Luck! If there is anything we can do (like an online petition to sign) just let us know

 

[NightingaleJen]

Wow, this post is new but super-informative. Keep posting the good info, it helps everyone, not just jbouvier!

 

[Carolyn252]

I am very interested in this project of yours and wish you great good luck.

I've been reading the postings on this particular board (Local Chicken Laws & Ordinances) for about three years now.

I would encourage you to start from the very first thread on that board and begin reading every single one of them. There are many, many, solid gold nuggets of wisdom there that would specifically meet your needs.

One posting in particular made quite an impression on me. I did not bookmark it or otherwise save it for future retrieval, so I can't give you a link to it, but as best as I can remember it, the point it made was that when writing ordinances, the rule should be to KEEP IT SIMPLE and set forth end goals only, thus entirely avoiding descriptions of what the chicken keepers must to do achieve those goals.

For example (and I'm just making this up as an illustration): "The keeping of chickens and their habitat must not cause or create a nuisance to neighbors. Nuisances include objectionable odors, insect pests, and chickens wandering off the chicken keeper's property. Noise levels produced by the entire flock of chickens, whether male or female, must not exceed sound levels typical of local children playing, people chatting, residential street traffic, or local wild birds."

It's the minutiae of detailed instructions that becomes the chicken keepers' stranglehold. Some like to use the deep litter method of coop cleaning once a year, others like to avoid deep litter and prefer to scoop the poop every day from a hay-strewn dirt run. Both methods (if done properly) result in pristine, clean, odorless, vermin-free habitats. And we want to be free to choose which methods to use.

And it's the minutiae of detailed instructions that becomes the municipalities' stranglehold as they then must hire inspectors to keep watch and see that coops are not violating any of the details (concerning property line distance setbacks, metal storage containers for poultry feed, etc.

Hope this is of some help.

-Carolyn