Please need help drafting letter to the city!

[jbher]

Hi everyone! I am submitting a letter to our city administrator this week requesting our ordinance be changed to allow backyard hens. I have been reading and reading for the past two weeks and am still having a hard time coming up with the write wording. They (the city admin) knows this letter is coming too! I am planning to submit the letter plus a small information sheet(s) with some facts and dispelling some myths. I have already done a lot of prep work. I have contacted the surrounding cities that currently allow backyard hens and I have emails from all of them with their experience, how many permits are issued and if any have had complaints or problems. Thankfully NONE have had problems! I am including these letters to the city. I also have letters from the poultry extension at University of Minnesota AND University of Madison coming in the mail any day now. The one from the U of Minnesota - he has been SO much help!! So I feel like I have a good arsenal of info to provide the city.

Sorry - this got long-winded. Anyway, I have scoured this forum and the internet to find samples of letters other people have sent. They are hard to come by!! I don't want the letter to be too long, but I don't want it to be too short and get set aside. HELP!

Jen

p.s.
I set up a Facebook page to gain supporters just a week and a half ago - we already have 91 "likes" yay!!! Feel free to check it out (I created the logo and design work - I have a graphic design background... before my days as a stay-at-home mom): www.facebook.com/HudsonUrbanChickens

 

[jbher]

This is what I've drafted so far. Thoughts?


Dear Mr. Devin Willi,
We respectfully request that the City of Hudson consider and find that a small number of hens, kept properly confined in their owner’s yard, be a variance in the current law (a) governing livestock.

Across the country, urban and suburban areas are revising their laws to allow small backyard flocks of hens. Major cities allowing hens include New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Baltimore, Minneapolis and Madison. A few cities (b) closer to home that allow “Urban Chickens” are: Eagan, Burnsville, Maplewood, Afton, Bayport, Stillwater, North Hudson and Prescott.

Owners of hens prize them as any other pet. Some for their personality, others for their heritage, colors and patterns. Hens, unlike roosters, are friendly, entertaining, and quiet (c).

Hens are also part of some citizens’ wish to live a “greener” lifestyle. They readily eat table scraps (keeping them from ending up in landfills) (d), are a natural insect control of lawns (e); of course not forgetting they also provide eggs for the family they live with (f).

Adult hens thrive in a pen that provides a 3-4 square foot dwelling with 10 square feet of run. The small unassuming pen is about the size of a large doghouse (g).

We would like to allow our children, and other children of Hudson, the experience of raising hens to demonstrate green living, showing them where their food originated, and the responsibility of caring for this extraordinary animal.

We would be delighted to meet with you in person to discuss this proposal or to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

 

[joan1708]

That's a good letter. I think it takes more than a letter to get a city to see the light, but it's still a very good letter. Good Luck!

 

[3KillerBs]

Very nice indeed.

This old thread includes my letter with the 10 reasons to allow chickens. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/231314/please-review-this-letter-to-the-town-officials

Honestly, your shorter, more focused letter may be more effective.

My town changed policy without much influence from me. I'm not very politically adept. The person who pointed out to the board that forbidding backyard hens under the no-farming ordinance would require forbidding home gardens too was.