City Issued a Citation and claims we aren’t allowed to have chickens due to neighbor’s complaint. What are my options?

[All4Eggz]

So after contacting the city council member who made the proposition to allow chickens in residential areas last year, I was told to contact the city planner, which I did.
He finally returned my call today.

Because we are in a Residential A area, obtaining a license to have the chickens isn’t possible, according to the planner.

The process would have to be petitioning for a zone change, and only when that gets approved, then you can file for a special permit.

The city planner said it’s really difficult to achieve this, so his advice was to contact the city council member again and request that his proposal be brought up again.
Apparently the proposal actually timed out and “expired” so it never really for accepted or denied. Supposedly because it was an election year, nobody really wanted to deal with that so it wasn’t a priority.

I will talk to the council member again to discuss bringing up the proposal again, and the planner told me another route is doing a city petition through the city website. With just 10 registered voters petitioning for an issue, it forces the city to have a hearing to resolve it.

So this is great news actually. If the proposal was never rejected that means there is a high likelihood that it may get approved this time around, if the council member is willing to go through the process of bringing up again.
Planner said this would be the best thing we can do right now is get involved in bringing it up again because, he said, if the council member wanted to he could begin tomorrow and the process could be much faster than expected.


So I’m celebrating over here. If there’s a hearing I will definitely get involved.

Upon reaching out to the council member who made the proposal last year, I have yet to hear from him after a few days. I’m thinking he’s not willing to make the proposal again.

Which leaves me with petitioning.

I’m going to go to city hall tomorrow to talk to someone about the process for petitioning.

 

[All4Eggz]

Happy Easter to everyone by the way!!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Blessed Resurrection Day, Ben. May He bless your efforts.

 

[All4Eggz]

Some of the last few eggs from our ladies.
Got 10 today from the 15 remaining hens.

 

[All4Eggz]

We have done so much work on this coop in the last few years. Upgrades, additions etc. It has housed thousands of eggs and sheltered hundreds of chicks throughout the years.

I’m praying we are still able to put it to use after some time!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

View attachment 3787953
We have done so much work on this coop in the last few years. Upgrades, additions etc. It has housed thousands of eggs and sheltered hundreds of chicks throughout the years.

I’m praying we are still able to put it to use after some time!

I see memories.... and hope.

 

[All4Eggz]

Good news.
I spoke with a city council member today who happens to be a neighbor (a few blocks away).
He wholeheartedly agreed with me and is willing to help. He said he will talk to the member who made the proposal and see what they can do.

He also told me that we shouldn’t have let them on our property unless they had a warrant. He said the government shouldn’t dictate what we do with our land.

Overall a very great guy and I’m glad I had the opportunity to speak with him.

Even better news.

“by the end of May” sounds amazing to me.
That’s two months. If that happens you guys do not know how happy I’ll be.

I dropped off the remaining 6 hens at a friends house today.
I said goodbye but I know I’ll have them back in a little bit .

Thanks y’all for the advice. I’m really hoping and praying this works.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Ben, that's great news! Keep us posted.

 

[Kiki]

Good news.
I spoke with a city council member today who happens to be a neighbor (a few blocks away).
He wholeheartedly agreed with me and is willing to help. He said he will talk to the member who made the proposal and see what they can do.

He also told me that we shouldn’t have let them on our property unless they had a warrant. He said the government shouldn’t dictate what we do with our land.

Overall a very great guy and I’m glad I had the opportunity to speak with him.

Even better news.
View attachment 3789999
“by the end of May” sounds amazing to me.
That’s two months. If that happens you guys do not know how happy I’ll be.

I dropped off the remaining 6 hens at a friends house today.
I said goodbye but I know I’ll have them back in a little bit .

Thanks y’all for the advice. I’m really hoping and praying this works.

This is great!
Keep on it!

 

[Climbingalbatross]

Some time last year the city came because of a noise complaint, demanding we get rid of almost all the flock and all the roosters. We had almost 10 roosters, had to get rid of all of them.
Had about 60 chickens, they said we can only have 15 so we brought it down to about 20 and the guy let us slide. He’s a nice guy, always is trying to help us and doing everything he can to let us keep the chickens.

That was sometime last year. We’ve had chickens for around a decade so we thought we’re off the hook. City clearly said we are allowed 15 hens because of the size of the coop and property, multiple inspections followed the complaint last year.

Some back story. Fresh eggs are huge in our family. Chickens are a big deal here. We don’t even eat store bought eggs, before they would even make some of our stomachs hurt.
So I am trying to do anything I can to keep these hens. We don’t sell eggs anymore, no profit from them. Just the fresh eggs, and occasionally, meat.

I am just needing help on how I can fight them this time…

It’s the same neighbor complaining this time.
This time there’s rats “coming from the coop and into her garage.” And i don’t deny we have rats, i’ve seen a few here and there. The chickens are close to her property line but we have double fencing to divide both sides.
The guy from the city claimed she provided “evidence” of the rats because she took photos/videos of them in her garage.
HOW is this evidence that they’re coming from our coop, and how is that enough to force us to get rid of all our chickens?

The man mentioned something about other neighbors being involved, so she must’ve got other people on board to fight against us.

I am willing to do what it takes the keep the 15 that we were allowed in the first place.

Thinking of moving the coop to the other side of the property, it would be almost an acre away from the complaining neighbor’s fencing.
I can get an exterminator for the rats if it I find it to be affordable…. I’ll do this if I need to. I’m not going to do it if I have to get rid of the chickens either way.

Please share your experiences if any, and any insight on what to do/how to do it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Try the following: 1) Mix baking soda with cornmeal or cake mix (50/50). Place in containers that will keep the contents dry (and out of reach of the chickens). Rats can’t fart and burp like other mammals, resulting in rats that explode from the inside. Predators won”t be poisoned when they eat them. My cat will offer my silkies dead mice that he finds in my yard. 2) Depending on the size of the rats, chickens will hunt them and eat them whole. This act would be a great video to show your neighbors. 3) Store your chicken feed in big plastic or metal containers. It should be noted that food from any pet will be a draw. 4) Cut tree limbs and clear any vines that rats can access for travel and housing. 5) Place all vegetables and fruit grown in the yard behind cages. 6) Bring home chicken friendly barn cats that love to hunt rats and mice.

Study your yard to determine sources of food, housing, and transportation for the rats. Tree limbs in my yard touched the field behind my house to create an entry for a rat problem in my yard. They chewed through the bags of feed in my garage and yard. Everything is now in big plastic bins.