HELP NEEDED ~ challenge to relax our Ordinance FOUNTAIN COLORADO

[divelli]

Our local newspaper (El Paso County and Fountain Valley News) posted a great article today in their weekly issue (front page, page 5 and page 14). Please visit their website and also
vote on their poll for us!

www.epcan.com

Thank you for your support!

 

[gaillardia]

Good luck with your effort! It works so well for Colorado Springs that I can't see how Fountain could have a problem with the idea. Based on the poll, it looks like public opinion is in your favor.

 

[divelli]

Thank you so much! Our next step will be the meeting with the Zoning and Planning Department next week. We will offer some ideas for ordinances, rules and regulations. From there it will be handed down to City Counil again for a final vote. I will keep updating this topic

 

[SillyChicken]

Good Luck!!!

 

[divelli]

Hi everybody!

We met with the Zoning and Planning Department a little while ago and 5:1 were for a change in the current ordinance. With the help of the ZPD, we created an outline and implied our suggestions. I think the draft looks very good and we are trying to suggest a sliding scale when it comes to how many chickens can a household have. We suggested that a lot of i.e. 5000 sq ft can have 5 chickens, 6000 sq ft 6 chickens etc, with a limit of 10.

Also, we suggested coop sizes and run sizes. I have gotten many inquiries about my presentation and the changes we suggested to ZPD and I am more than happy to email anybody what we have. Also, our next step is another meeting with ZPD on March 2nd, where we will introduce the final ordinance change and on this day, the ZPD will vote if it will be send back to City Council. Towards the End of March, we will have a City Council Meeting during which CC will review the final ordinance change and then in April, CC will submit a final vote!

I have to say that we got a lot of support from our ZPD and they have done such a great job pulling it all together and drafting it. Everybody is for a change in the ordinance and I have heard so many times that this is the right time to do it!

Go forth and conquer fellow chickeneers

 

[divelli2011]

so, I am back (I was divelli in the previous postings)... I could not remember my password and tried to email the forum but I never got it reset. A lot happened in the past weeks since we met with the Zoning and Planning Department. On March 22, Fountain's City Council voted NO to our suggested change in the ordinance. No reasons were given. We were devastated and a lot of members of the Community got upset with City Council. A day later, I received two phone calls from City Council members, apologizing and stating that they would re-consider the issue and bring it back on the table on April 12th! The local newspaper wrote two great articles, which I will post here:

Council Votes 4-2 Against Allowing Chickens
The City Council voted 4-2 against repealing and reordaining an ordinance at first reading that would allow the raising and keeping of chicken hens. Mayor Jeri Howells and Councilmember Louis Porsia voted in favor of allowing chicken hens in the city limits. Mayor Pro-tem Gabe Ortega was not in attendance at the meeting, but later stated he would have voted to allow residents to have chickens.
The issue of allowing chickens within the city first arose at the Jan. 11 council meeting when Elisabeth and Matt Reid, residents of Countryside, along with other citizens, requested the city ordinances that ban backyard chickens be changed to allow the keeping of a limited number of hens. Presently, chickens are only allowed on lots of one acre or more in the RA, LLR, POS and PUD zone districts and are subject to conditional use approval. After lengthy discussion that night, the council directed city staff to research the topic further and send it to the Planning Commission for further review , to come up with guidelines and recommendations and then bring it back before them as an ordinance.
At last week’s council meeting City Planning Director Dave Smedsrud explained on March 2 the Planning Commission recommended approval of city staff’s new draft with certain modifications to include the minimum lot size of 4,000 sq. ft. be decreased. Staff’s new draft of the ordinance would allow chicken hens on residential lots with a minimum lot size of 2,500 sq. ft. This would include single-family detached, two-family detached (duplexes), single-family attached (townhomes) and mobile home subdivision lots provided there would be common areas in multi-family developments, public and private parks and mobile home developments by conditional use approval only and a minimum of 2,500 sq. ft. contiguous area. Applicants would have to obtain a permit.
Elisabeth Reid told the council, “It doesn’t take a lot to keep a flock of chickens. It doesn’t have a big impact on the neighborhood.” She also pointed out, “Fountain is a community that has the agricultural aspect.”
Councilmember Sharon Brown commented, “My concern is the predators.”
Matt Reid pointed out research shows there’s not a problem with wildlife. “We protect the chickens from wildlife as much as we can,” said.
Councilmember Brown also expressed concern that she couldn’t afford to replace someone’s exotic chickens if her dog got loose and attacked them. She was referencing an incident in which a resident’s dogs got loose last year and broke into a neighbor’s chicken pen killing hens and an exotic rooster.
Both Donna LaChey (a local resident and poultry expert) and Mayor Howells pointed out to Brown that her comments were not relevant to the proposed ordinance at hand.
LaChey also asked council “What is the deal with having a couple of chickens that are caged and monitored? I think your depriving people of their rights.”
LaChey added, “You’re the council we elected – we’re telling you what we think is reasonable. You should start listening to the citizens.”
Darrell Couch, the only member of the audience to voice concerns about allowing chickens, cautioned council, “I do think it’s something that needs to be taken advisably. You need to think about people on both sides of this issue.” He pointed out it would be prudent to think about.
Councilmember Brown was the only councilmember voting against the proposed ordinance who publicly discussed the issue. Councilmembers Heckman, Lois Landgraf and Harold Thompson gave no explanation as to why they voted no.
(After the meeting, Councilmember Heckman contacted this newspaper explaining he was going to bring the issue of keeping chickens back up at the next council meeting for further discussion and consideration. He said, “I don’t feel it’s fair to the citizens if I don’t bring this back up. I feel I made a hasty decision on my vote and I want to bring it back for discussion. “)


Here is a letter from one of the Council Members:

Chickens In Your Backyard-Thinking About The Whole Issue

As you may know by now Fountain City Council voted down a proposed change to the city ordinance that bans the raising of chickens on lots zoned RA or LLR. The vote was 4-2. On the surface I am sure this seems to be a harsh decision and to those people wanting to raise chickens it was.

The young couple who came to council a few weeks ago requesting this change gave a wonderful, compelling presentation. They currently raise chicken hens and asked that the ordinance for the entire city be changed. On the surface their request seemed a simple and logical one and I was willing to ask the staff to go forward with suggested changes to the ordinance. Then I started thinking about the whole issue.

I thought about all of the people who purchased homes in areas like Countryside, Cross Creek, Heritage and other residential areas. People who did not purchase homes with the expectation of having poultry or any other type of livestock living in their neighbor’s yards. How would it be fair to those people to change the rules after the fact. People who want to raise chickens should have known the regulations of the neighborhood before they chose to purchase in that area.

I thought about other things like the possible increase in predators in residential areas and the subsequent problems that it could cause to domestic animals. I thought about the strain on our city staff in having to license and inspect chicken coops and runs. How much time would be spent ensuring all coops are predator safe? And to responding to complaints about chickens. Then I thought, do we really want to turn into chicken police?

I still believe there are areas in this town, the truly rural areas, which could sustain the raising of a limited number of chickens. I live in Little Ranches and I expect to have barns in my neighbor’s yards along with horses and would not mind other types of animals. But I knew that when I bought here.

So for me the decision to vote no was based on just that. I didn’t feel it was appropriate to change the rules on people who bought homes in developments without the expectation of having livestock in their neighbor’s back yards. I don’t think it’s fair to change the rules after the fact.

People attending council meetings have to realize that they are a very small minority of the people living in Fountain. I hear from many more people than ever attend meetings. And based on the number of people who contacted me on the subject there were many more people who did not want chickens in their neighborhood than did.


Sincerely,

Lois Landgraf

City Council

Member at Large

And one more article

Something Is Foul In Fountain...

Transparency In Government Is Not Optional

As I mentioned above, the issue of transparency in government is most important to our leaders at the Colorado Press Association and the same goes for our newspaper as well. This newspaper has long considered itself to serve as a community watchdog, if you will, when it comes to our local elected officials and how the public’s business is handled. Early on I learned how important it was for we in the press to "hold" governmental leaders and bodies accountable when conducting the public’s business, and how very, very essential it was that those who are elected to serve "we the people" do so not only in our best interests but openly as well..

Unfortunately, at last week’s Fountain City Council meeting, certain councilmembers failed greatly in this capacity. It all started a few months ago, when the issue of allowing citizens to have a limited number of chickens (hens) was first presented to the council. That night, a consensus of six councilmembers agreed to at least consider the idea by having the city’s planning staff work on a proposed ordinance, which would then go before the Planning Commission. After hearing the proposal, the Planning Commission voted to recommend approving the new ordinance to the City Council. It’s frustrating to say in the least how, in a few months time, some councilmembers seemed to change their mind on the issue, but furthermore- how some of our elected officials chose to vote no on this proposal, without publicly explaining why they were doing so. In the last year, I have observed what I can only call an unhealthy "air" among some of our councilmembers who seem to think they can do as they please without offering any explanations to the people. How terribly wrong this truly is. Perhaps most citizens may not be aware they deserve better, and can demand better. This is another reason I write this column today.

I know the lack of transparency and doing the public’s business "in front of the public," was the reason Mayor Jeri Howells walked out of a council meeting last year, when, late in the evening (and after the majority of citizens in the audience had left) certain councilmembers re-introduced the topic of medical marijuana for additional discussion. Later, even the city’s attorney stated that in retrospect, he regretted allowing the discussion to continue. It was just plain wrong, whether or not it was done intentionally on the part of the more novice councilmembers. There was at least one "veteran" councilmember present who should have known better and should have spoken up himself, yet he did not.

After last week’s shocking no vote on allowing citizens to have a limited number of hens, I heard from several citizens, one of whom is a long-time resident, who explained that before the meeting she approached (at least) two councilmembers asking them to vote in favor of allowing chickens in Fountain, and at least one replied she would be basing her vote on public commentary during the meeting. Yet, after the public commentary which was most favorable in supporting allowing chickens, she voted no.

Personally, I really do not understand why Councilmembers Sharon Brown, Sam Heckman, Lois Landgraf and Harold Thompson voted no on something the citizens were very much vocally in favor of. Of course, had they explained themselves during the meeting, we might better understand why they voted to deny citizens this opportunity. I am aware that Councilmember Sharon Brown did get vocal about the costs of replacing expensive chickens, giving an example of an incident last year in which one local chicken owner suffered an attack on her "exotic" chickens from a neighbor’s dogs who had managed to get loose; although most failed to see how Brown’s comments were relevant to the broad question at hand... After all it really is up to the chicken owner what types they choose to purchase.

What I (and many who I have heard from) do not understand is how - in this rural community, whose very foundation is based on its agricultural roots- some of our leaders simply refused to see what numerous other cities- both small and large (including the city and county of Denver even) have figured out- allowing citizens to keep a few hens for their own egg production, not to mention allowing children a venue for 4-H and related programs can be a good thing, especially in this economy. It coincides with the growing trend of "going back to how it used to be" where we have more and more folks planting their own gardens to have fresh, organic produce and more.

Also of interest on this subject, I wanted to mention that on Wed., Jan. 19, on this newspaper’s website (www.epcan.com) I posted the following poll question: Do you think residents in Fountain should be allowed to keep a limited number of chickens (hens) for private egg production? Though not a scientific survey by any means (which is why we usually don’t cite this poll) I do think that given results were collected over a two-month + time frame (ending on Sat., March 26,) it is interesting that 89% of those responding were in favor of allowing chickens, 14.2% out of that group even favored allowing roosters. Only 9.6% were against chickens while 1.4% had no opinion.

In closing, I wish to commend Mayor Jeri Howells and Councilmember Louis Porsia for attempting to vote on what I consider to be "the side of the people" regarding this issue. Sadly, their effort was defeated by the other four mentioned above. Also, I’m aware that Mayor Pro Tem Gabe Ortega (who was not able to attend this meeting) would have supported this reasonable measure to allow chickens as well.

Citizens of Fountain, I hope you will join me in demanding better from our elected officials. Transparency and accountability are essential, you deserve much more from those who have "snubbed" the people through their actions and/or inactions.

 

[chickortreat]

Sounds like your council needs to pass a law prohibiting Councilmember Brown from owning a dog so violent as to "get loose and attack" someone's chickens. Isn't that like banning banks because they attract robbers? Ya gotta sit back and admire the sheer intelligence that emanates from some people. It's frightening sometimes. These folks actually live among us.....and they reproduce!

 

[divelli2011]

Our chicken issue PASSED!!! YEEEEY chickens are now legal in Fountain, CO!