No chicken raising in my back yard

[roadrunnerred]

Called the town this morning, not allowed in my residential area....YET. Alot of interest in it though. Asked what I can do to get the ball going on changing the ordinance and he said to write a letter to the town board and start a grassroot petition going for it. So...looked through this topic on type of letter to send, what time span are we looking at, do I want to go through all that?????????....

 

[schellie69]

I would there seems to be a lot of places changing their laws right now. I would jump on the wagon since there is a bunch of towns that you can use for examples. I can have 15 chickens in town and I love it. I would also do some more checking call your local animal shelter and check I know when I called around some said no. I looked the town code up on line and found the code myself. It seems some people that work at city hall really didn't even know the code.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yes you do.
Civic action is a good thing and will eventually give you fresh eggs laid daily.

Some of these news articles may give you ammunition and direction.
http://dailycollegian.com/2011/04/14/um-professor-supports-raising-chickens/
http://sarasotacluck.blogspot.com/p/case-statement.html
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/119035164.html
http://pinellascountycitizensforbackyardpoultry.weebly.com/index.html
http://cluckentoh.webs.com/

It might also help in the letter to suggest guidelines/restrictions in the proposed ordinance.
Start with fairly loose guidelines and let them tighten them. Like 6 or 8 hen limit rather than 3 or 4.
good luck

 

[roadrunnerred]

Thanks Schellie and Chickencanoe, good articles to use for ammo, thanks. I'll stew it over for awhile. Maybe put something in the local paper, see if I can round up some backup and see what they have to say about it.

Thanks again Chickencanoe for those articles, in some ways I can see how they will help, in others, I don't want them to be ammo for the board to see this as a new opportunity to collect more money for them as in "how badly do you want to raise chickens?" "enough to pay $210 dollars for special permits to have 2-4 chickens?"

 

[Patchesnposies]

When we were interested in starting our backyard flock we called our local animal control to see if we were allowed to in our town. They told us absolutely not!

Well, my DH went down to speak to the city planner to find out what, if anything, there was for us to do so we could have some chickens for our family. He got a copy of the local ordinances. It turns out that the animal control officers do not like chasing chickens and there IS NO LAW in our town that says we cannot have chickens.....or goats under 50 lbs....or horses...or anything other than pigs. The only animal that it specified that we cannot raise is full sized hogs.

That was five years ago and we are now responsible for chickens in backyards all over our small town.

Sounds like you have called the right folks...and been told no......but still think if you are determined and follow a proper course of action you will get your chickens!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Quote:
In your letter with proposed ordinances I wouldn't mention anything about a permit or fee.
Lots of cities large and small don't require permits. St. Louis simply says no roosters and 4 hen limit.
They do offer a pricey permit if you want up to 10 hens which most people forego.

My friend lives in a neighborhood that doesn't allow chickens - Rhinoceros and dune buggy racing are OK.

 

[roadrunnerred]

Ya, i'm in no hurry. Thats why i'm on here. Taking my time, reading and getting informed. It couldn't hurt to get a letter out. Would still like to meet the other folks who called to question the same ordinance. Congrats on your accomplishment.

 

[Markp1964]

http://westervilleacks.blogspot.com/2011/04/proposed-legislation.html
This is the proposed legislation that I want to bring to my area's city council.

 

[roadrunnerred]

Thanks Mark for the peek into your request. I see from reading others proposed letters, that they state that they want the chickens to be stated as pets, and from reading your page on facebook, that I am assuming, if they are stated as agriculture, that there is more beaurocrocy and paper work to go through just to keep a handful of chickens? Just wondering if anyone has come across any problems from animal advocates when they have to cull their pet chickens or roosters?

and....how long is the process? @Mark, I noticed that you registered on here a couple of years back, but the letter is dated from this past Saturday.