A Vist From Animal Control Informing Me That I'm Not In Compliance

[countrybum]

Grandfathering in your chickens means if 1 dies you can replace it. As long as you keep chickens on your property before the law takes affect they can remain there. If you were to lose all of your chickens and not 1 is on your property, you then have to go by the ordinance. I would get a rooster which would allow mine to stay occupied with chicks.

They cannot force you to remove your birds or reduce your flock. They were there before the ordinance was put into place.

As I was told about my horses by my Attorney as long as 1 remains on the property I can keep them. So if I sell I replace it with 1, kind of a circle pattern, which allows me to keep as many as I want and the Village hates that they can do nothing about it.

 

[tulie13]

Quote:
If grandfathering means that replacement is OK if one dies, I'd go get 4 dozen baby chicks RIGHT NOW. Make sure you document that you have over 50 chickens on your property on July 14, and that they are still there on July 15. Therefore, after July 15, YOU should be able to have as many chickens as you want up to the number of 56 (8 girls you have now plus the 48 straight-run chicks you are going to buy!). Oh, and make sure you get straight run, so you can have at least some roos in the mix, so they can't say that you can only replace them with pullets...

 

[Renee]

Good news that you will be able to keep most of your chickens. It's not all bad that there is now a law on the books, because that means people CAN keep chickens. It will not be as easy for cranky neighbors to sue you in civil court if there is a law that specifies correct chicken keeping, and you have conformed to the law.

I believe that you are probably setting a precedent for chicken-keeping in your area, and that after people get used to the idea, and note that chickens are not dirty, loud, or obnoxious, that more and more neighbors will get chickens.

I have no idea what I am talking about, admittedly, but I believe there must be a "grandfather clause" in a law to have things "grandfathered in". At least as far as building codes in my neighborhood, the city does not care if a structure was there when you bought it, it must conform to code. This could differ from area to area, though.
Renee

 

[Nektro]

After some phone calls I found out that I am not grandfathered since I was illeagle to begin with. There was a vage ordinance on the books from a long time ago when the town I live in was a agricultural . Now that the big city has encompassed us they felt they needed to update the ordinance to allow for us backyard chicken ranchers to continue with set forth rules that most people can live with. I am pretty happy since we can now have chickens leaglly and I can tell my grouchy neighbor that I am now in compliance and get over it.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Have you looked at the wording of the "vague ordinance"? Laws cannot be vague and be enforceable. If they are they tend to be thrown out of court. When a city annexes land, the zoning and allowed uses for that land is grandfathered into that land--either forever or until the land changes ownership.

In other words, when a city annexes agricultural land, using it for the agricultural uses that were allowed cannot be disallowed as long as the original landowners retain title. The zoning itself could change (agricultural to residential, industrial, commercial, etc., but without the consent of the property owners, previously allowed uses cannot be revoked.

 

[leearealake]

gee this sounds like here about 2 years ago some of my neighbors complained about smell and sound other when ask by police said they didnt hear or smell anything i wasnt the only one with chickens they ended up saying at this time they have to signe complantie and take them to court to do any thing,we live in a very small rural town and at the edge and 2 blocks from the fair grounds there are several horses in town,4 whelers ,dirt bikes mule,trctors and other loud smelly things and many close to me ,so the neighbors need to be sure what they hear and smell cause some of these other things are them.

 

[chicken_angler]

Hurry Hurry Hurry!

get more right now so that they will be yours and you can say that they were there before the ordinance was!

It wouldnt be a bad idea to get a few more!

Seriously,

Cody!!

 

[countrybum]

I live in a small area, population is 100 if that. When I moved here in 2006 there was no law on horses or how many you can have. Well the Village put in an ordinance that stipulates that you can no longer bring in horses and if you do, you have to have 2 acres of land per horse. Well my friend also has horses and the Village Board tried to say we had to get rid of them.

Well this is where the Grandfather Clause came in:
Anything you are doing or have prior to the ordinance gets to stay and is not in violation, because at the time you started or acquire such there was no ordinance. Our Attorney explained that as long as horses are kept on the property at all times, the Village cannot do anything, but if I ever removed all the horses or they all died I sould not bring in more.