Coop has to be where?!?! Rant

[klf73]

I asked my dad where the coop has to be situated on my property to be within code, he is on the town planning board and has a book of ordinances. First he tells me it just needs to be 10 ft off the property line, great, that's doable. He calls me tonight and tells me he spoke to the code enforcement officer and he is saying it needs to be 50 feet off of the property line! That great! The lot my house is on can't accomodate that, and across the street (dirt, dead end road) it would end up right on my well, don't think so! I have to go find this in print, the only other place would be so far from my house and in the woods that they would be extremely vulnerable to predators, especially the fisher. Now some would say I should have had this info before, and I agree, but I wasn't planning on getting chickens until next year (daughter came home from sleepover with eggs). Now, I have been to many peoples house with chickens in my town and no one has that 50 ft setback. My mom said as long as no one complains (neighbors) who cares where I put it. What I don't understand is why they try to make this so difficult, we have lots of farmland and we are pretty rural.

Krista

 

[Suess hens]

wow...that sucks. Is he sure it is 50 ft from the prop line, or from live in structure? We have an ordinance of 30 feet from any live in structure.

 

[patandchickens]

Rural areas often have ordinances about how close to the propertyline you can build and, perhaps more relevant here, how close to the propertyline you can have animals housed/penned. The latter is not entirely idiotic, since if your house is near the edge of your lot, do you really want your neighbor putting hog pens on the propertyline

You might explore applying for a minor variance, assuming that you could put the coop like 30-40 ft from the propertyline rather than 40. It would probably cost a few hundred dollars, but it might be worthwhile if the zoning guy thinks you'd get it (generally requires getting signatures from neighbors saying they don't care).

Alternatively you might have to use a mobile tractor-type coop.

Anyhow as long as chickens are allowed in the first place, you should be able to find *some* way around the problem.

Best of luck,

Pat

 

[Stephen in SoKY]

Build it on skids. Not a permanent structure, generally exempted from regs, generally doesn't raise your property taxes as all permanent structures do.

 

[LynneP]

Skids are a great idea, and would it be possible to have it as an add-on to a garage or other existing building? Another alternative, similar to skids, is to build a very large chicken tractor with wheels that can be housed in another building in winter. Good luck, be creative!

 

[seminolewind]

How bout a dog house and run? LOL. Or the moveable thing sounds good

 

[smom1976]

Yes portable.. even the "portable sheds" arent really that portable but they are not in regulations..

 

[HorseFeathers]

yikes. Here in Suburbia the coop has to be 20 ft from the property line (that's practically where our HOUSE is!) unless you get a waiver from your neighbors (we did, thank goodness!)