Help me understand the local ordinences can't get ahold of anyone

[Mrsfoote]

Thank you so much and if you looked at the zoning map you can see thats hard to understand as well hell my mom lives in a uptightt town in california and she can keep chickens so I figured in big ol montana i could too but we are building a coop and will only have 4 chickens when we get rid of our roosters

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Actually, as I read the ordinance, the way they wrote it means that there are no restrictions whatsoever on chickens within the city limits of Billings. They outlawed livestock in Billings, not fowl. If there isn't a law against it, it's legal! It depends on the rules of construction, which I did not check, but in many cases the rules of construction state that unless it is specifically allowed, it is disallowed. If you go through the code itself, there is a table that has marked things that are allowed in different zones. As best as I can tell, poultry is only allowed in the agricultural residential zones. However, the small animals sections seems like it would allow a small number of chickens.

They did put restrictions on keeping poultry outside the city limits, though. Isn't that crazy?

The allowance of livestock and/or fowl in commercial or industrial zoning districts, situated outside the limits of the City of Billings, may be permitted when the regulations established in below subsection (b) are met....

I'm pretty sure that's not what they really meant to do; the lawyers who wrote this were just poor drafters. If I were you, and if it's possible to do this, I'd try to satisfy the poultry requirements set forth for property outside the city limits (e.g., the one "fowl unit" per 20,000 square feet of land, putting your coop 50 feet from the property line, etc.). You should then be entirely safe from the chicken police!​

 

[Mrsfoote]

So now I'm confused .....If you look on the zoning map I wrote down where we fall its kinda like cordinations its in the city-county only...when you look at the specifics on the zoning table does that mean I fall under agricultural residential....