Thanks for asking! And thanks for signing the petition. We presented it along with our online petition to City Council this past summer. It helped get Councilors' and the Media's attention. As a result, Robert Ike asked for and received Council's vote to send the matter before the Planning Commission for review and a recommendation.
The "hen issue" is still before the Planning Commission. The Planning Department has made its recommendation public at
http://www.cityofchesapeake.net/Ass...ning/proposed+chicken+amendment+2012+TA-Z.pdf. The way I understand it, the Department makes a recommendation to the Commission, the Commission has a public hearing where the public can comment, it sends its recommendation to the City Council, and the City Council USUALLY takes the Commission's recommendation and enacts it into law, although it certainly doesn't have to.
Our group is not happy with the Planning Department's recommendations as currently written. We have presented to the Commission our own recommendations in a document called, "
A Case for Chesapeake Hens." We feel that residents should be allowed to keep 6 chickens since both Virginia State Law and Chesapeake's own municipal code make it a misdemeanor to sell chicks under two months old in flocks of less than six. The restriction of hens to single-family residences is a problem for some of us. But everyone dislikes the recommendation of a 6' privacy fence around one's whole back yard just to have a few hens! That part seems ridiculous.
We are still figuring out exactly how to respond to this. We want changes but we don't want to jeopardize any progress we've made. In the meantime:
1. We will be at the Hampton Roads Sustainable Living Expo on Saturday, September 29, 2012. Visit my blog at
http://mlcsgarden.blogspot.com/ for more information on this and our group's activities in general (mixed among my other ramblings, mostly about my garden).
2. We have arranged for Patricia Foreman, the author of
City Chicks, to make the Chesapeake Central Library a stop on her East Coast Book Tour. Pat has pledged her support for our cause. To learn more about her--she's a GREAT speaker!-- and to buy tickets to the event, visit
http://citychicksinchesapeake.eventbrite.com/. Tickets and books for the book-signing MUST be purchased in advance. We have invited the media, all the members of the Planning Commission, and all the members of City Council to this event, which will take place on Tuesday, October 9. Help us spread the word!
3. We plan to be at the Planning Commission meeting at City Hall on Wednesday, October 10, dressed in red, the color of the "Little Red Hen." Those of us who intend to speak will sign up to do so before 7 PM. Help us spread the word!
The easiest way to stay abreast of what we are doing is to join our Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/4ChesapeakeHens but, if you don't do Facebook, my blog has good information amidst my other musings!
We, too, hope you will be able to have a couple of chickens! Please join us in our efforts to FIGHT for the right to have them. The more of us there are, the more united we are, and the more visible we are, the more likely City Council will be to pass laws that are fair to us all.
