Homebuying headaches in Georgia

TheGeekySheep

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7 Years
Jun 27, 2012
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Great googly-moogly, who knew an agricultural state like Georgia would be so fussy about where its residents keep chickens?

I don't have chickens yet, as I'm not a homeowner, but I dream of it. I'll be home-shopping early next year and I'm trying to pin down the locations near Newnan, GA that allows chickens. According to the Laws section of this site, Newnan allows chickens, but that's no longer the case, as now they're listed under "Prohibited Animals" in their municipal code.

Sec. 4-17. - Prohibited animals.permanent link to this piece of content

(a) No person shall keep or maintain any wild animal or exotic pet within the city limits.

(b) No person shall keep or maintain any cattle, horse, donkey, mule, ***, swine, sheep, goats, or any other livestock or grazing type animal within the city limits.


(c) No person shall keep or maintain any domesticated fowl to include but not limited to chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guineas, pheasant, emus, ostrich or any other domesticated fowl within the city limits.

(d) This section does not apply to zoological parks, performing animal exhibits or acts, stable, or riding school, providing the same has applied for and was granted a license or permit.

(e) This section does not apply to those persons currently keeping or maintaining any domesticated fowl or other animals that were not previously precluded by the ordinance. Any person having such animal must register the animal before July 1, 2010.

(Ord. No. 10-5, § I, 2-9-10)


http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=11345

So that lead me to look at properties outside the city. Currently in Coweta County only RC (Rural Conservation) zones permit keeping of chickens and all coops and structures have to be 200 ft from existing offsite structures and 100 ft from all property lines, which means I'd have to procure an acre of land at the very least.

Right now according to the zoning reference map, there are loads of RC-zoned parcels, they make up the majority of the county. But to make matters confusing, I looked at the Future Development Map through 2026 and on THAT map, RC zones make up only the very fringes of the county. It's a huge difference.

Does this mean that the zones marked proposed residential WILL become residentially zoned? Are they considered residential now? If I buy property in one of these possibly-future-residential zones and a subdivision springs up around me, would I have to give up my chickens?
 
It's just very odd. You can have chickens in urban Atlanta proper, but outside the city where's there's more space? Oh no, can't be having that.

I also have friends who live in the bay area in California who have almost no land and yet they're allowed chickens as well. I'm just super jealous, haha.

I'll just have to do my research on every house I consider, and make sure it's a permitted use for that land. I may even call the zoning office to ensure nothing has changed since the maps are all at least three years old.

I guess I just wish there was an online reference that tells you what the current zone for a parcel is and whether there's an active plan to change it. In this day of technology and connected-ness you'd think it wouldn't be that difficult!
 
I am assuming that anti-chicken ordinances are based on the thinking that chickens = dirt poor uneducated bad-for-our-reputation people, and chickens not allowed = upscale living without the riff-raff.

So places where there is a lot of country and possibly a history of less-than-wealthy people would be very much against chickens.

And places like San Francisco, Atlanta, and other places with culture and some degree of wealth -- or countryside where there is some degree of suburban-type wealth mixed in -- would allow them. Chickens are trendy!

p.s. I count myself among the riff-raff.
 
Well I'm still saving up for a down payment at the moment, so I won't start searching in earnest until January or February of next year. But I've been keeping an eye on real estate as it pops up and I've been practicing my zoning research skills on each house. I'm getting pretty quick at it, but sometimes it's still a headache.

The first thing I do is determine if the property is inside or outside city limits. If it's inside, I look up the city's municipal code. So far all city municipal codes I've looked at prohibit chickens and livestock, so I've pretty much forgotten about living in any city.

If it's outside the city limits, I go look for that county's zoning map and zoning ordinances. For the most part, fowl and livestock are only permitted in agricultural (A or AG), "rural residential" (RR) or rural conservation (RC) zones, which fortunately makes up the majority of most of the lots outside city limits currently. Carroll County even permits fowl (with a conditional use permit) in their low-density residential (R-1) zones, medium residential areas (R-2 and R30) and even high density areas (R-3)! They're the most liberal county I've seen thus far about keeping chickens.

Once I determine if the house is zoned for chickens, I look at the limits on where coops can be built because it varies from county to county, and this will determine if the lot is big enough. Coweta county for example requires coops to be 100 feet from all property lines and 200 feet from existing offsite structures. Which means you need a minimum of almost 1 acre, or more if your neighbors' houses are within 100 feet of your property lines.

I've got a nice little library of county and city municipal codes and zoning ordinances and maps for a few counties building up on my computer, lol!

My biggest worry is that some of these maps and ordinances are a few years old. I can use them as a guide, but before I close on a home I will have to try to get a definitely yes or no from the zoning office to make sure nothing has changed since the map was drawn up. *whew*
 
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You are an impressive and diligent researcher! It will be really interesting to see what you do with chicken genetics.

I hope you find a great piece of property with a decent house and lots of law-abiding room for chickens.
 
If I buy property in one of these possibly-future-residential zones and a subdivision springs up around me, would I have to give up my chickens?
If you purchase a property whose zoning allows chickens, then if you have chickens when the ordinance changes you will be grandfathered in and will be allowed to keep them. If the ordinances change before you have chickens, you are not grandfathered in. Am I correctly reading Newnan's code as saying that you could not have a pet parakeet? Wow!
 
Am I correctly reading Newnan's code as saying that you could not have a pet parakeet? Wow!

It gets worse, this is how they define "exotic pet", which are prohibited further up in the article:

Exotic pet: An animal that is not domesticated and is not native to North America, including but not limited to, pot-bellied pigs, reptiles and arachnids.

So no tarantulas or lizards either!
 
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