Laws in Chesapeake?

[4ChesapeakeHens]

If you want to change zoning laws in Chesapeake, come to the City Council meeting on August 14, 2012. Wear red; sit together. If you want to speak, sign up before 6:30 PM. Plan on three minutes. More on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4ChesapeakeHens/posts/489770174367904

 

[sajack]

I live in Portsmouth and was visited by city rulers that told me i couldnt have my beautiful hens. I have 17 beauties. If you find you can have some i would love for you to come see mine and take a few home. We really need to band together Chesapeake and Portsmouth and get the laws changed. Write me and i will give you my phone number. I intend to fight this to the max and i could use some help.

 

[4ChesapeakeHens]

I just left a post for someone from Portsmouth on our Facebook page. Please come to Tuesday's City Council meeting dressed in red. https://www.facebook.com/events/334258133324381/ and try to talk to the Virginian Pilot reporter, Marjon Rostami, before or after the meeting. If she doesn't want to cover your story, maybe she'll know someone who does.

 

[sajack]

4 Chesapeake Hens is a group of folks in Chesapeake that is trying to get the codes changed so you can have hens. Look for them on facebook. They are great.

 

[BarbaraD]

what is the latest on the Chesapeake push for chickens? I signed the petition at Southern States last time I was in there. really would love to have a couple hens on my lot.

 

[4ChesapeakeHens]

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.

 

[Nathan Sampson]

I hope you have the best of luck getting these changes for your city.

I know in Cape Girardeau Mo everything looked good until the last vote and then one council member changed her vote.

 

[4ChesapeakeHens]

If you are a Chesapeake resident who wants changes to our zoning laws to allow more hens, come to the City Council meeting on November 20, 2012 (at City Hall). Wear red and sit with us. The meeting starts at 7 PM. Be there by 6:15 if you want to speak because paperwork must be submitted in advance. Questions? Find "4 Chesapeake Hens" on Facebook.

 

[4ChesapeakeHens]

On November 20, 2012, Chesapeake City Council voted to allow up to six laying hens, no roosters, in a pen in residential backyards on all single-family lots. City Council Member Robert Ike was instrumental in implementing this change. There's a sunset clause, so City Council will be revisiting this issue in 1 year to see if the change in policy is causing any problems. Thanks so EVERYONE who has supported us in getting this change.

There are some setback requirements for the coop.