Michigan Right to Farm Law, what does it mean?

[Gardeninggranny]

I wish you luck with your case before Auburn Hills. But do please go back to pg 25 and click on the link provided by dennimi to a complilation of case law by MSU. I did not write this - you can see the authors at the bottom of the article. And is not an intrepretation - it is simply a compilation of what happened in various cases. If you read carefully you will see that not everyone won their cases. At this point in time there are not any Michigan Supreme court rulings on any RTF cases. That means that any judge who looks at a case can use his own interpretation of the RTF act. Unfortunately you do not have a "sure thing" . I have found that most communities, when shown the RTF act, agree to amend the zoning to allow small flocks, with certain provisions. Hopefully that will happen in your case. I am working with someone right now that has 7 acres and is still not allowed to own a few chickens by her township.

As far as GAAMPS go - everyone is talking about this - the GAAMPS for poultry management are very basic- and the MDA could approve the management GAAMPS regardless of how many birds you have. It is great that you are following them though, and it may help you win your case. But you must also look at MDA GAAMPS for site selection and odor control for new and expanding livestock production facilities, a separate provision.

On page 9 it states- Residential Zones - Areas zoned primarily for residential use will generally have housing at a density that necessitates setback distances for livestock production facilities to prevent conflicts. New livestock facilities shall not be constructed within 1,500 feet of areas zoned for residential use where agriculture uses are excluded. Existing livestock productions facilities may be expanded within 1,500 feet of areas zoned for residential use with approval from the local unit of government.. If you began your operation after the RTF law went into effect you should have considered the site GAAMPs as well as the management GAAMPs. These are GAAMPS for up to 750 animal units and since most small flock owners will have less than 1 animal unit it may or may not apply, its open to arguement. But for some people it might be better not to refer to GAAMPS.

Don't get me wrong- the RTF act can be helpful in many cases. I want everyone to be able to raise chickens to feed their family or to enjoy as pets. But it is better to be pro-active and get your community to allow chicken keeping, and many communities are allowing this now, than to engage in expensive legal battles. I realize you probably have no choice now since you have been cited but for all you others out there who know you are "breaking the law" get busy and try to change the law before it becomes a problem for you. I think the issue of overiding local zoning will soon be addressed by the Michigan Supreme court and it may not favor urban chicken owners with small lots. Once that has happened getting your community to accept chickens will be harder. Use the RTF act now for leverage to get reasonable chicken rules, not to override all zoning.

Lets honestly face it- most urban/suburban chicken owners do not want to be a commercial farm. Most of you just want a few chickens for your own use. You are claiming to be a commercial farm in order to keep your chickens under the RTF act- which is understandable. But if you live on a small city lot with close neighbors do you really want the neighbor to be able to raise 900 chickens next door? How about 10 hogs? It might be hard for someone to comply with GAAMPS in this situation but remember GAAMPS requires an animal unit ( in the case of poultry 1,000 birds or so depending on what type), to become necesscary. Do you want to claim on your income tax that you are a farm and declare loss and gain on your operation? Do you want to keep extensive records and get a business name and license? Wouldn't it be simpler just to have an ordinace in place that allows you to keep 10 hens if they are kept neat and clean?

All I was trying to do is to get people to realize that fighting a zoning ordinance can be very expensive and you need to consider if its the right thing for you to do. There is no guarantee you will get your court costs back- ask a lawyer. This is the last time I will post on this. I do hope everyone gets to keep their chickens.

 

[dsp]

New Market Christian!! GREAT LETTER!!!!!!!! : ) Keep us posted!!

Gardeninggrannyy-- You posted that "livestsock production facilites have setback requirements.... are you aware what the definetion for a "livestock production facility" is??? For laying hens you would have to have over 4999 hens to be required to adapt to rules pertaining to Livestock Production Facilities.

 

[Denninmi]

Hey, folks. We all need to keep fighting the good fight.

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
Well, actually, none of that is very hard. You can register an assumed name for a few dollars at the county level, and still use your social security number as the tax ID number and run as a sole proprietorship. And, record keeping is pretty easy now in this day and age of computers. A Schedule F for farm income isn't hard, either, and you don't need to show a profit every year, just once in like 3 so the IRS doesn't call you just a hobby. At that, it doesn't have to be a big profit, it just needs to be enough to show that over 3 or 5 years you made a net profit, total over the period could be like $25 and you're still a business in the eyes of the IRS.

This is my plan, I'm working on it as time permits.

 

[FreeMarketChristian]

Well, I brought three packets to the Auburn Hills city clerks office. 1 for code enforcement agent, city manager, and zoning liaison. I called agent and left a sweet message for her to call me when she gets the packet. She called me yestarday and was VERY cordial and sweet. She said the "city attourney is reviewing the law information you gave me and you will here back from me about Monday".

Im skeptical of the sweetness, but maybe it will turn out very well and easy. GOD WILLING! Say a prayer.

 

[Denninmi]

Well, you might as well keep it cordial as long as possible. Can't hurt.

Keep us posted. Wishing you the best of luck with this.

 

[FreeMarketChristian]

Update from Auburn Hills:

I was supposed to recieve a call back on Monday giving me the results of the city attourney's decision. Its Friday and no call yet. Perhaps they are just going to not responde after seeing the errors of their ways.

 

[dsp]

I hope so.... obviously they see they are not correct or they would be back at your door with a violation.... they still might try and make you think you cannot do what your doing...keep us posted!

 

[shadygrovefarm]

Gardeninggranny: you wrote, "On page 9 it states- Residential Zones - Areas zoned primarily for residential use will generally have housing at a density that necessitates setback distances for livestock production facilities to prevent conflicts. New livestock facilities shall not be constructed within 1,500 feet of areas zoned for residential use where agriculture uses are excluded. Existing livestock productions facilities may be expanded within 1,500 feet of areas zoned for residential use with approval from the local unit of government.. If you began your operation after the RTF law went into effect you should have considered the site GAAMPs as well as the management GAAMPs. These are GAAMPS for up to 750 animal units and since most small flock owners will have less than 1 animal unit it may or may not apply, its open to arguement. But for some people it might be better not to refer to GAAMPS."

If I'm not mistaken, when you speak of a "livestock production facility", that is referring to a farm of 50 animal units or more. There are 100 chickens in 1 animal unit which means it would take 5000 chickens to be considered a "livestock production facility". I believe if you read again about the site selection and odor control, it refers to "livestock production facilities".

I have been going through this with my township since August of 2009 and after 5 "meetings" I finally brought up the MRTFA. One of the members on the planning commission board is an attorney (this was his first meeting) and he actually had a copy of the RTFA and agreed with me that I was protected by the state law. There was recently another meeting discussing our unique situation but I haven't heard anything from them yet. We did not attend that meeting as we run the local farmers market and weren't able to make it.

BUT, I am more than willing to let them take me to court if they so choose. I tried VERY HARD to work with them in the beginning but they wanted no part of it. So, now if they choose to spend a bunch of money that they don't have on a legal battle, I'm OK with that. We NEED more commercial farms and farmers to help with the local food movement and I am not about to back down and let them roll over the top of us. We live this lifestyle religiously and passionately, raising our kids with the understanding that doing it yourself is the best way. It's not just some backyard hens, it's a lifestly that we have made commercial. I feel that the more people fight for their rights concerning commercial farming, that maybe townships will stop trying to shut operations down and realize that WE ARE PROTECTED!

I have even offered to sit on a committee, voluntarily, to help them write a new ordinance pertaining to the keeping of backyard hens (as not everyone wants to be commercial in nature) and they said they were considering it. But, our zoning administrator does not like the fact that I am smarter than he thought. He doesn't like it that I was more prepared for them than they were for me. I did my homework and his staff did NOT. So, we shall see what their next contact consists of and go from there. Keep on farming Michigan!

 

[BigPeep]

As you are probably aware from the numerous posts on this (only a few of which I have taken the time to read), nuisance suits and zoning are not the same thing. If the zoning when you bought the place does not allow chickens and/or livestock, you are in murky water if you try to cite a nuisance immunity statute. The latter were passed to keep people who moved to a new subdivision near pre-existing farms from suing the farms under nuisance law. It was also passed to allow for factory farms in more rural areas if they followed certain guidelines.

If you watch the video "The History of the Chicken" from PBS, you will see how someone in Ohio was successfully sued as a nuisance when he brought in 100 roosters to raise for cock fighting on a five acre farmette next to a subdivision. The previous owner of that land had been raising pigs. Apparently there was no nuisance suit immunity statute in Ohio at the time. The nuisance suit had to be used as he already had the farm zoning so the neighbors couldn't do anything to him by that route. In MI they would have been forclosed from doing that as well. However, if you don't have the agricultural zoning to begin with, you don't have a lot to go on.

I would use the confusion over what the state statute means as leverage to get your zoning laws changed to allow for reasonable keeping of chickens, as the author of the "Dummies" book pointed out. What you don't want is for the courts to clarify the situation and deprive others in the state from also using this same leverage.