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

[Nym]

Not really but it acts just like a law and can come with civil penilties provided you live within it jurisdiction. Just like HOAs their rules don't count either if you don't live there and sign the contract. That's called freedom.

2011: My daughter and husband bought into a Strata complex: no pets allowed. no remodelling allowed. $400k for a box on concrete in Sydney City East. Guess what. Almost every apartment had a dog / cats. She ended up getting aircon installed and there wasn't a thing Strata management could do. She has since moved, and ...

From Wednesday 25 August 2021, the NSW Government will enact new laws that will put an end to blanket bans on animals in strata. The changes follow a detailed review of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 and extensive public consultation, focusing on the keeping of animals in strata

it sounds like a class action was made against the Strata Act 2015

 

[BigBlueHen53]

2011: My daughter and husband bought into a Strata complex: no pets allowed. no remodelling allowed. $400k for a box on concrete in Sydney City East. Guess what. Almost every apartment had a dog / cats. She ended up getting aircon installed and there wasn't a thing Strata management could do. She has since moved, and ...

From Wednesday 25 August 2021, the NSW Government will enact new laws that will put an end to blanket bans on animals in strata. The changes follow a detailed review of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 and extensive public consultation, focusing on the keeping of animals in strata

it sounds like a class action was made against the Strata Act 2015

What is the point of this post in the context of this thread? Are you advising Ben to ignore the city ordinance and keep his chickens? I'm confused.

 

[Nym]

What is the point of this post in the context of this thread? Are you advising Ben to ignore the city ordinance and keep his chickens? I'm confused.

No, no, it was showing how a class action changed a Strata Act re wkycongae mentioning HOA rules. Strata is similar to the HOA.

 

[All4Eggz]

I have reached out to a city council member from my city who, last year, made a proposal to allow chickens in our city in A residential areas with over 5,000 square feet. 6 would be allowed.

Nowhere online did I find the outcome of the hearing from July 2023. A friend of mine is friends with him and his wife so she contacted his wife who informed her that it was unfortunately rejected by the city.


I then contacted him directly and he said
“Please contact City Planner ___ and ask him about the process to obtain a license through the planning board. His number is._”

I called the number and left a message so now I am waiting for a response.


I also spoke to a paralegal who has been looking into this for me the past couple days.

Here is what she informed me.

—
I took a deeper look into finding a way to save your chickens (I also checked with an attorney in __. Unfortunately, per current ___ ordinances, having chickens on your property is illegal and the only way to reverse this situation is for you to apply for a Special Permit through the City of Westfield Planning Board, which is a very costly and lengthy process.

Basically, you live in a Residential A District where, per current city ordinance, “raising and keeping chickens is not allowed.” So you’ll need to apply for a Special Permit with the Planning Board to designate your zone as a Rural Residential Zone, and even if that happens (which is not easy to get because all your neighbors will have to vote in favor of the zone change) you will still have restrictions, see current official ordinance for Rural Residential Zone as it stands right now:

It is unclear what happened to the __ proposal as there is no more information available about it other than the article that you sent. It may have been killed or it could still be pending and you can probably find out more information about it if you visited the City Hall (probably Planning Department).

In your situation, as long as neighbors weren’t complaining, it was all good. But as soon as the neighbors started complaining the City had to take action since having chickens on your property in your Zone is illegal. So, again, the only way to change this is to apply for a Special Permit, which may take months if you were to initiate the process and you were only given 7 days to remove the chickens from your property.
—

 

[Kiki]

Now you know what needs to be done:
"So you’ll need to apply for a Special Permit with the Planning Board to designate your zone as a Rural Residential Zone, and even if that happens (which is not easy to get because all your neighbors will have to vote in favor of the zone change) you will still have restrictions, see current official ordinance for Rural Residential Zone as it stands right now"


Good job for finding out!

 

[wkyongae]

I hope many that have been following this thread learn from his ten year, costly mistake. Always check first before proceding and check every so often to make sure you are still allowed.

 

[All4Eggz]

I have reached out to a city council member from my city who, last year, made a proposal to allow chickens in our city in A residential areas with over 5,000 square feet. 6 would be allowed.

Nowhere online did I find the outcome of the hearing from July 2023. A friend of mine is friends with him and his wife so she contacted his wife who informed her that it was unfortunately rejected by the city.


I then contacted him directly and he said
“Please contact City Planner ___ and ask him about the process to obtain a license through the planning board. His number is._”

I called the number and left a message so now I am waiting for a response.


I also spoke to a paralegal who has been looking into this for me the past couple days.

Here is what she informed me.

—
I took a deeper look into finding a way to save your chickens (I also checked with an attorney in __. Unfortunately, per current ___ ordinances, having chickens on your property is illegal and the only way to reverse this situation is for you to apply for a Special Permit through the City of Westfield Planning Board, which is a very costly and lengthy process.

Basically, you live in a Residential A District where, per current city ordinance, “raising and keeping chickens is not allowed.” So you’ll need to apply for a Special Permit with the Planning Board to designate your zone as a Rural Residential Zone, and even if that happens (which is not easy to get because all your neighbors will have to vote in favor of the zone change) you will still have restrictions, see current official ordinance for Rural Residential Zone as it stands right now:
View attachment 3784235
It is unclear what happened to the __ proposal as there is no more information available about it other than the article that you sent. It may have been killed or it could still be pending and you can probably find out more information about it if you visited the City Hall (probably Planning Department).

In your situation, as long as neighbors weren’t complaining, it was all good. But as soon as the neighbors started complaining the City had to take action since having chickens on your property in your Zone is illegal. So, again, the only way to change this is to apply for a Special Permit, which may take months if you were to initiate the process and you were only given 7 days to remove the chickens from your property.
—

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.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

No, no, it was showing how a class action changed a Strata Act re wkycongae mentioning HOA rules. Strata is similar to the HOA.

Ah, I see. You are in NSW.

 

[Kiki]

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.

Keep digging!

 

[Coffetym]

I still say there are many ways to return the favor of making life miserable for the neighbors. Some are legal & some might not be!
I would watch everything this neighbor does & if it even seems leaning toward shady I would complain. Go to city hall & study all of the city ordinances. I would almost guarantee you that there are some serious violations that could be reported. You could always approach the neighbor with a list of the items you are going to report them for & let them know that they could either remove the complaints against you or the party is about to start.
That’s the legal side!