Hoping This Doesn't Pass...

[Zenmonkey]

@Iluveggers Im sorry, I didn't mean to come across as so negative. Definitely stay viligant, and don't give up the good fight. As long as you can keep the community together and keep pressing back, there hope.

@Lacy Duckwing Pray, stay in contact with the other looked minded folks, and don't be afraid to expose the ridiculous arguments when they come up.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Kind of like gun control. They only need to succeed once, and there's not really any penalty for failing. So they just keep hammering on it until they succeed.

The "fun" part starts after they're successful. They will have "compromised". Probably by "allowing" folks to have chickens, but not a "ridiculous" number of chickens. "Ridiculous" will have been defined so as to not impact 80% of the chicken owners, and so get enough votes to pass. And we're done, right?

At literally the next meeting there will be another vote to correct the minor errors in the first law. The total number needs to be "just a little lower". Or if they didn't set a limit on roosters, that's what this one will do. Or exotic pheasants / geese / horses / SOMETHING new will be banned.

This continues until you're limited to 5 hens, all housed in the community park, and HOA fees on those 5 birds would be several flocks elsewhere.

About that time, they introduce a proposed law to ban assault pit bulls.....

Good luck, and stay viligant. Don't give up an inch. Instead counter with a grab back of what you've had taken from you. If that's just peace of mind, then you're doing as well as can be expected.

@Iluveggers Im sorry, I didn't mean to come across as so negative. Definitely stay viligant, and don't give up the good fight. As long as you can keep the community together and keep pressing back, there hope.

@Lacy Duckwing Pray, stay in contact with the other looked minded folks, and don't be afraid to expose the ridiculous arguments when they come up.

@Zenmonkey, thank you for your encouragement. On your first post above, that is what I'm afraid of. Thankfully, I do have some good news, just I don't want to get too comfortable with it:

This morning I went running around to the town office to get the "new" articles and the people there said that this is nothing but a rumor. There is nothing to do with any ordinance going onto the ballot (this vote) and it is impossible for this to be voted on this soon after being just shot down. They did acknowledge this as a "rumor" and that I'm not the first one who has come in asking about it.
After I left there, I sent a quick text to the Chair of the Select Board and this is what he replied, along with attaching pictures of what this next vote will be on:

Everything on the next vote really only has to do with things like taxes (and sewer), so there is nothing to do with this on the ballot. Because this rumor is out there, I do want to stay alert because I am concern that they will try again. Based of that Selectman's text, I'm hoping it won't be any time soon, but I still want to stay alert on this in case anything does change.

 

[MapleLaurelFarms]

Unfortunately... a new issue has come up. Appeartly, some of those who put this ordinance in motion are the same people in charge of my neighborhood, and a part of them putting this ordinance out there was them hoping it'd "take care of us" with chickens in the neighborhood and now all are upset that it didn't pass because now they have to come up with a new plan. They're now talking about changing the rules in my neighborhood and bringing a similar ordinance there, despite again, the majority of us have chickens and are farmers.
Not to mention, the original owner of the neighborhood was for farming and said we could have anything though he "didn't want to see horses or cows" due to lot size. His daughter and others have taken over the neighborhood and are against chickens and don't want any farm animals there.

Kind of like gun control.

So this sounds like a similar situation in a town close to us. Not really related to chickens but speaking of changing ordinances to suit a few hecklers...

Our county has a very highly regarded, private gun club that hosts a lot of classes and competitons etc. It's been there for decades, it's only open about 3-5 days a week between the hours of 9am-6pm (closes earlier in winter), and there's no firing after hours.

It's not in the city limits, but in recent years, the vacation homes have sprung up all around it. Now these home owners are complaining and "want something done."

Why? Get this: They don't like the noise from the guns AT the gun club. They bought and built houses next to a gun club, and now they want to shut down the gun club.

So far, last I heard, the complainers haven't made much headway. But the way our local town is shifting, I'm concerned it may not be long before they do.

This seems simple to me: If you don't like guns, don't move next door to a gun club. If you don't like chickens, don't move to an area that allows or has chickens. And vise versa - if you're deadset on owning chickens, don't buy a house in an area or neighborhood that doesn't allow them and then try to slide by or change the rules. I've seen this also.

Anyone is welcome to correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's just common sense. So sorry that some of your neighbors seem to feel differently.

 

[Zenmonkey]

This is one of the most common failure modes for gun clubs. It's unfortunate, and also it happens frequently.

Not to go all political, but this thread is kind of there anyway. The Big Beautiful Bill (US, might not be particularly interesting elsewhere) is going back and forth regarding language for suppressors (popularly called silencers).

I have no idea how that's going to play out, but there are a handful of clubs that have gone suppressor only, because of this situation. It doesn't really fix the issue of course. The people that don't want to live next to chicken homesteads tend to object more to the chicken, but complain about the noise. Likewise the people the live next to the gun range tend to object mostly to the gun, but complain about the noise.