OMG I can't believe I missed this thread till now.
I live in Sacramento County, right outside the city limits, in a "regular" urban area. Sacramento county chicken laws are here:
http://www.msa2.saccounty.net/acr/Documents/Chickensand-zoning-letter-English.Edited.06.pdf
I have only lived in my current home for several months, I have some chickens that are about 3 months old. My property is something like 9,950 sq feet, very close to 10,000 that is required by the county.
At my parent's home, in the same neighborhood, we keep 5 laying hens. Their property is smaller. The neighbors next door know they are there...no one has a problem with the hens. One neighbor even LOVES to get fresh eggs. The hens have a small attractive coop with an attached run, that I made, although the hens spend most of their day free ranging the lawn in the backyard. We get 4-5 eggs a day from 5 hens, they are almost a year old. When we raised our chicks, we ended up with a rooster, which we re-homed for free to a farm when he started to crow.
I have pictures of my set up(s) that I can provide. At my current house, I have a chicken tractor that I can move around and it almost fits over my 4' x 8' raised garden beds. (very similar to gardengirlTV.com)
I get my chicken feed from western feed supply downtown. I ALWAYS see people buying chicken feed there. I really believe there is a huge "underground" pet chicken thing going on in Sacramento.
I think 6 hens is a perfect number to go for. I think maybe listing "keeping sexually mature cockerels or roosters is unlawful" should work BUT you need to list what the definition of a sexually mature rooster is. Do you need to list how far away the chickens need to be housed? I have seen other chicken city laws that don't list a distance away from the home.
Congrats on taking on this project. I am sad I missed the meeting...how did it go? Did you get any press to come?