How to get ordinance changed?

[Murdock624]

Hi! I'm new here and hoping someone can help point me in the right direction. I live in north GA on an acre of land. There is farmland all around us and we can hear cows and donkeys from our porch. We've even had wild geese stop to rest in our backyard. Despite all this, our property is zoned as residential and we are not allowed to have chickens, ducks, etc. My husband is planning on contacting the zoning administrator to see if the zoning can be changed or if we could get a permit or something that would allow us to have some type of poultry. Has anyone had any luck getting an ordinance or zoning changed and is there anything specific my husband needs to mention when he contacts the administrator? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm very aggravated about the whole thing. We bought this house about a year and half ago with the intention of getting ducks or chickens and were told that it shouldn't be a problem. Now, we're finding out differently. If I had known then that we wouldn't be able to get them, we would've kept looking.

 

[gtaus]

My husband is planning on contacting the zoning administrator to see if the zoning can be changed or if we could get a permit or something that would allow us to have some type of poultry. Has anyone had any luck getting an ordinance or zoning changed and is there anything specific my husband needs to mention when he contacts the administrator? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We had a neighbor that needed a variance to build on his property because of some ordinance. He had to go around to all us neighbors and ask us to sign his request. He got his request approved. That's probably an easier way than trying to change the ordinance itself. In the end, you are really only concerned about your ability to raise animals on your specific property. Good luck.

 

[Murdock624]

Sorry, I'm just now replying. We're still researching to see if there's anything we can do. Unfortunately, one of our neighbors isn't on speaking terms with us. Long story. We've tried to make amends with him and he refuses to acknowledge us. His wife is still friendly, but I doubt he'd allow her to sign anything that would benefit us. My husband did email the zoning administrator and the response he got said that the subject has been met with a lot of opposition to chickens in residential areas. I'm not sure what to do from here. I'm not giving up just yet, though.

 

[Acre4Me]

Hope you can get a solution.

Ill-tempered neighbors are the pits. Neighbor wars are worse. Too bad that guy isn’t even able to speak to you!

perhaps going to the zoning board with what the rules are in neighboring areas would help. 1 acre is certainly large enough for a small backyard flock of chickens that isn’t close to the boundary lines. Sometimes it takes awhile to change zoning, but since you are surrounded by agriculture, perhaps that would help. Curious who told you chickens should be fine before you bought the house. Maybe they had some basis for saying that.

 

[Murdock624]

Hope you can get a solution.

Ill-tempered neighbors are the pits. Neighbor wars are worse. Too bad that guy isn’t even able to speak to you!

perhaps going to the zoning board with what the rules are in neighboring areas would help. 1 acre is certainly large enough for a small backyard flock of chickens that isn’t close to the boundary lines. Sometimes it takes awhile to change zoning, but since you are surrounded by agriculture, perhaps that would help. Curious who told you chickens should be fine before you bought the house. Maybe they had some basis for saying that.

It was our realtor who told us. She's also a friend of ours. She said that our county is mostly agricultural and that getting some chickens shouldn't be a problem unless we were buying a house in an actual subdivision or downtown. We're in neither and finally have some land (we were on a small lot in our old house) so that makes it very frustrating. I was hoping that getting some chickens or ducks would help with pest control, too. We have a creek at the back of our property so we get lots of mosquitoes and we also had issues with ticks last year. So, not only was I looking forward to the fresh eggs, but I was also hoping they could make a dent in the pests.

 

[DottieMinerva]

Do you live in a city or unincorporated county?

My city has what is called a Reasonable Accommodation Request (RAR). People can request a special accommodation as a loop hole to certain city ordnance requirements. I have a friend who is requesting one so he can raise his own chickens for health reasons within the city limits. It does not require permission from neighbors, just a lengthy form to be filled out and presented to City Hall. I found out about this when I spoke to someone who raises rabbits for food within the city.

 

[goldysgirl]

Hi! I'm new here and hoping someone can help point me in the right direction. I live in north GA on an acre of land. There is farmland all around us and we can hear cows and donkeys from our porch. We've even had wild geese stop to rest in our backyard. Despite all this, our property is zoned as residential and we are not allowed to have chickens, ducks, etc. My husband is planning on contacting the zoning administrator to see if the zoning can be changed or if we could get a permit or something that would allow us to have some type of poultry. Has anyone had any luck getting an ordinance or zoning changed and is there anything specific my husband needs to mention when he contacts the administrator? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm very aggravated about the whole thing. We bought this house about a year and half ago with the intention of getting ducks or chickens and were told that it shouldn't be a problem. Now, we're finding out differently. If I had known then that we wouldn't be able to get them, we would've kept looking.

Yep...same thing happened to me when I bought a house in Indiana. Pretty much the exact scenario you described and I was ticked. Luckily I moved to a house in PA within a few years where I could satisfy my chicken craving.

 

[goldysgirl]

It was our realtor who told us. She's also a friend of ours. She said that our county is mostly agricultural and that getting some chickens shouldn't be a problem unless we were buying a house in an actual subdivision or downtown. We're in neither and finally have some land (we were on a small lot in our old house) so that makes it very frustrating. I was hoping that getting some chickens or ducks would help with pest control, too. We have a creek at the back of our property so we get lots of mosquitoes and we also had issues with ticks last year. So, not only was I looking forward to the fresh eggs, but I was also hoping they could make a dent in the pests.

Yep...our realtor told us the same thing. It was even zoned rural, but not the type of rural where you can have chickens. No disrespect, but I will never take a realtor's word for it again when it comes to something like that. Especially when they get money to sell you something. A lot of people will tell you whatever you want to hear if it will put money in their pocket.

 

[Acre4Me]

Yep...our realtor told us the same thing. It was even zoned rural, but not the type of rural where you can have chickens. No disrespect, but I will never take a realtor's word for it again when it comes to something like that. Especially when they get money to sell you something. A lot of people will tell you whatever you want to hear if it will put money in their pocket.

so true! Most things a realtor will say can be met with rolled eyes (no disrespect to realtors), as they are trying to sell something and likely get in a habit of saying what will please the person asking the question. In Ohio, school districts are not by county, they are much smaller usually, and some school district borders aren’t easy to distinguish, so if trying to get into a specific district always, always call the school district to verify. I see houses now and then with clearly wrong SD listed - it’s always the highly desired district as compared to where the home is. We asked about chickens and reSltor told us “yep, it’s fine” but we checked all other sources too, in order to verify.

 

[gtaus]

Yep...our realtor told us the same thing. It was even zoned rural, but not the type of rural where you can have chickens. No disrespect, but I will never take a realtor's word for it again when it comes to something like that. Especially when they get money to sell you something. A lot of people will tell you whatever you want to hear if it will put money in their pocket.

Yep, realtors will say anything to make a sale. My neighbor died a few years ago and her house was sold to a young couple. One day I was out trimming lower limbs on our pine trees so we could get the riding mower around them to cut the grass. The new neighbor comes running out of his house screaming at me not to be cutting "his" trees. I told him that he was mistaken because I have lived on this property for 30 years and I know my father planted these trees 25 years ago. He insisted I was wrong because the realtor had told him that those pine trees were his and that the previous owner (a lady who never did anything outside of the house) had planted all those trees. I told him that the realtor was incorrect and that it really did not matter now as I could not uncut those lower limbs. His response was to put a fence on the property line a few weeks later so I could not mow around the trees. We have not said a word to each other in 3+ years. Too bad.

When my dad planted those trees, we thought that the property lines were about 10 feet from the neighbors. We cut and maintained that lawn for over 30 years. When the house was sold to the young couple, the survey indicated that our trees were almost exactly on the property line instead of being offset by 10 feet like we thought. Mind you, the previous neighbors were there before us and they also thought the property line was over 10 feet. So it was not like we were trying to claim property that did not belong to us.

Anyway, long way of saying that I understand problems with neighbors and realtors who say anything to make a sale. In your case, if your neighbors are preventing you from having the lifestyle you want to live, and they have the ordinances on their side, I think I would consider moving to a location where you feel you would be able to live the life you want. Life is just too short to be fighting with neighbors and not being able to live the lifestyle you want. There are lots of great locations and people of like mind in the world. If you can't work out this situation, then I hope you can consider moving if the financial burden is not too much. Good luck.