Looking for chicken laws in Danbury, Ct

[leel]

I found City of Danbury Code of Ordinances in www.municode.com but searching for keyword "chicken" produces no results, finally found a sentence on "hen house" in sec. 9-24 Location of animal pens. It says:

No person shall keep any animal or fowl in any pen, sty, or other place in such manner that said place shall become unwholesome or offensive to any person, nor keep or maintain any hen house within forty (40) feet of the street line, or of any dwelling house or public building.
(Code 1925, § 112)

Then I called division of landuse at City of Danbury's Health and Human Services to enquire about permit, they told me that chickens are not allowed in residential zones. Now I am so confused. I already build a chicken coop to house 4 chickens but not sure whether I should go ahead to get them chickens as the city officials may come slap me a fine. Is there anyone from Danbury, Ct area that can give me some advice?

Thanks!

 

[buckbye]

Would anyone really notice/care where you are? I see a number of people on Craigslist selling chickens in Danbury, many of whom appear to have pretty sizable flocks. Lol, what's a few rogue chickens when half the city's population is there illegally?

 

[skinnyboy]

I guess I will just do the rest on my own the. $10 is crazy. The first two that I did were pretty easy and a great experience. It just took a bit more time than I have for the rest of my meat birds. I would highly encourage you to give it a try for at least of a couple of yours. You won't regret the feeling you get from raising an animal and then processing it to feed your family.

 

[alicefelldown]

Other good keywords are Fowl, Poultry, Hen, Rooster, etc. Unfortunately, I checked all those too and didn't get any hits.

Since there didn't seem to be any zoning regulations listed at municode - I went to the city website: http://www.ci.danbury.ct.us/content/41/205/878/914.aspx

If you know your zone, you can follow the links there to read all the fine print about what is and is not allowed for your zone. (If you don't know your exact zone, you can check with the Tax Assessor. Some cities have this available online, and some don't.)

Good news? If it doesn't say anything about poultry, hens, chickens, etc then you are GOOD TO GO!!

Bad news? If it does - maybe you can apply for a permit or perhaps start working on changing the city's code. Or you could always try flying under the radar - but that can be pretty risky and heartbreaking when you get caught and have to give up your birds.

I wouldn't trust the Division of Landuse person unless they gave you the exact wording and code number, or a copy of the "rules". They can be pretty notorious for giving out misguided information.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

All it has to do is list in the rules of construction that uses not specifically allowed are disallowed, and it doesn;t have to ennumerate that poultry is not allowed. This is VERY COMMON.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
I live in Suffield, CT and have the same issue. Doing a search on "poultry" will yield the right results for you, not "chicken". The Town of Danbury's Zoning Regulations can be found here (see Chapter 4, particularly Section 4.A.5.f. for the controlling section addressing your concerns): http://www.ci.danbury.ct.us/content/41/205/878/914.aspx

We live in a rural, farming community, but the zoning regulations are "silent" as to the keeping of poultry on residential properties of less than five acres THEREFORE, that use of the land is prohibited (by definition). Most zoning regs include a catch-all provision stating that uses not specifically PERMITTED are PROHIBITED. Your regulations also require a minimum of 5 acres to qualify as a farm and must be in a RA-80 Zoning district.

Did that stop us from getting a chicken coop? Nooooooooo! Did we buy sexed day old chickens? Yes. Did two of them turn into roosters? Yes. Therein lies the rub. The neighbor called the Zoning Enforcement Officer, who could not possibly care any less whether we keep chickens. However, he said when he gets a complaint, he has to send the "you're in violation, fix it" letter. We smoothed things out with the neighbor (who never had the common courtesy to contact us FIRST about her concerns) and she agreed to let us keep the rooster if we kept him confined until 7:30am. We had her sign a joint letter to the Zoning Enf. Officer stating that she withdrew her complaint and she has no objection to our keeping poultry. Case closed. (We subsequently culled the roo and kicked the neighbor a dozen or so eggs to keep her happy. Seems to have worked.).

You could try applying for a variance to get special permission to keep the coop, but it's not without cost (usually that of hiring a lawyer unless you represent yourself).
The right thing for us to do would be to try to change the law (in my spare time, right!), which would likely be successful in our town given its agricultural history and rural character. I'm not that familiar with Danbury. We don't think the drafters of the zoning regs ever contemplated that homeowners on parcels of land smaller than 5 acres would WANT to keep chickens and that an effort to clarify the regs to specifically permit it would be successful.

More often than not, towns don't seek-out code violations (especiallly chicken coops) and usually don't care if you have one unless a complaint is filed, in which case, they have to act (it being their job and all). If you have neighbors on-board with your new hobby and the coop is not an eyesore, and you don't house a rooster, you will probably be okay vis-a-vis the town. Good luck with your dilemma and keep us posted!

 

[new chick 203]

Hey Danbury, Ridgefield here!

We're right next door and going through the same thing. We're right in town and it turns out that we can have the chickens, but our issue is where we are allowed to put the coop. After all the set backs etc, the only place they will let us put the coop is in the wetland, believe it or not. We are petitioning for a variance to put it in a more suitable place. We are going armed with photos to show the site isn't visible from the street, letters from neighbors saying they are ok with it and drawings of the proposed coop.

I find it hard to believe that Danbury has a no chicken policy. I suggest you go on into you're town hall and ask, as long as you are prepared for what they are going to say. Once you go in you can't pretend you didn't know! Good luck!

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Hey Ridgefield. FYI: Danbury DOES have a chicken policy (Leel just hadn't found it as of her first post in this thread) and unless they're zoned farmland, they cannot have chickens. And in my experience, the town hall is the WORST place to ask for advice. My town clerk told me that no permit was required for a chicken coop, which was technically true, we could have a coop, just NO CHICKENS in it! I should've known better and done the research myself but I didn't think for one second that OUR town would not have a specific zoning provision expressly permitting it. Silly me. We dodged the bullet though and everyone is cool with our chickens and coop (now). Good luck with your wetlands issue. I'm sure it'll turn out just fine in the end.

 

[new chick 203]

Wow, it's amazing that some cities are more OK with chickens than the more rural towns. Sometimes you can't help think that people need to get a hobby (like keeping chickens

) and stop thinking so much about other peoples business.

Danbury, are your neighbors OK with it? That seems to be the key to the whole thing.

 

[smitty750]

I live in Bethel right next to Danbury, my town states that you need 1 acre to keep 50 birds, but it also states that there are no restrictions on household pets. IMO these chickens are gonna be household pets. My neighbors are cool with it so I may give it a go. My brother lives in Danbury on Fairfield Ave and one of his neighbors had about 10 chickens. All was well until one got loose than he got a letter from the city saying to fix the problem. he gave them to his friend for the day of the inspection and then picked them up afterwards and hasent had any problems since. That was 2 years ago