Sanford, NC family fined $1300 day for chickens!Update She Found US!!!

[emandmikey]

Alex, I haven't heard anything about only voting on an issue once in a year's time here in Wake Forest. I will ask about that. I do think you should invite the media to come and do a story when you have to drive your chickens away. It would be good publicity for your cause, and maybe give you more sympathetic voters when it comes down to it. I'm taking my issue to the town commissioners August 19th, and I hope to have plenty of signatures from residents then. I have sent them an information packet which they will receive a week before the meeting. I have been told they will not vote on the issue that evening, but that might change depending on where it is put in the agenda. I hope it's not at the end of the meeting! The town clerk was pretty wishy-washy about that part.

Good luck Alex, and keep up the fight! Why are you holding off the voting for this? Are you getting more signatures on a petition, or drumming up more support? I would think you might want to take care of this asap, so if it is a year until they can vote again, that year will be sooner rather than later (does that make sense?).

 

[Alexcritter]

Em:

Yes you may want to check on the voting policy. It was explained to me to be a part of the Parliamentary procedure, to keep one or two folks from wasting city council time by repeatedly bringing up an issue.

As for not asking for a vote I feel as if I have a better chance working behind the scenes and lobbying for votes while riding the media attention. If they say no the media goes away and I am stuck in a void for a year and then I am faced with having to drum the whole thing up again.

So, on that note......everyone please, please go leave comments on our blogs. This is important because it helps keep us on the google search pages, which means it is topical and the media will look at that. You see......I am trying to get our stories on shows like Good Morning America and Martha Stewart.

 

[vfem]

I just found this thread (new here) and I am sickened! I just moved from Downtown Raleigh to Fuquay and I know people in Raleigh IN city limits with chickens and they've never been given a problem!? SANFORD? They should have some of the most laxed laws on animals of any city I could think of!

I'm going to voice myself 100x over!!!! and only like 12 chickens?! Thats not a farm, not even close.

I'm going to finish reading as many posts as I can since I'm so far behind and get the info I need to harass council. High horse morons.

 

[emandmikey]

Our Wake Forest story will be in the the Raleigh News and Observer tomorrow... take a look - I hope it's a positive story! We need more signatures on our petition!!!

 

[Alexcritter]

I will make sure to go out and get it tomorrow.

 

[Alexcritter]

Yea Durham!
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-977658.cfm

 

[emandmikey]

Hi everyone! Here's a little clip from the Raleigh Paper which ran a story about our plight here in Wake Forest. I think Bill Summers and Mayor Vivian Jones need to recieve some letters from folks who are in support of backyard chickens. Please visit www.wakeforestnc.gov for the address. Here are their email addresses: [email protected] (Bill Summers) and [email protected] (Vivian Jones)
Thanks! Emily


Across the nation, town and city officials are fielding requests such as Cole's.

Critics worry that the birds are noisy, smelly and unsanitary.

Bill Summers, a Wake Forest planner, said he's not sure the town's rules are strict enough, because residential lots in the town are much closer than when the law was originally drafted.

Summers said he received an anonymous letter from one of Cole's neighbors strongly opposing any plans for chickens nearby. The letter writer was concerned about the noise and feces, especially where waste would go after a storm, he said.

"People are really polarized on this issue," Summers said.

Proponents point out that well-kept chickens are quieter and cleaner than most pet dogs.

 

[Yanna]

Where do things stand now in these two towns?

Alex, where are your chickens and what are your plans?

 

[Yanna]

Quote:
It seems that small cities with inferiority complexes often feel the need to pass these types of ordinances to prove that they aren't "backwaters" and to "improve their image."

Major cities such as Chicago and Seattle allow chickens as they know that keeping chickens is a quality of life issue for many people - not just middle class ladies with "eccentric" hobbies but also people who are economically challenged, for whom fresh eggs provide a wholesome and inexpensive food source.

It really, really is a shame but hopefully as backyard chickens gain more notoriety, more and more municipalities will rethink and rework their restrictive municipal codes to allow for pet chickens.

 

[Alexcritter]

Well today is Tuesday the 12th. At 6:45pm tonight the City of Sanford Housing board of Appeals meets over my appeal regarding the ordinance citation. I filed the appeal to gain some time before being fined, although I have no grounds for the appeal. I suspect that they quickly assembled a board (the clerk at code enforcement told me a board had not been assembled in five years) to quiet me down.

So tonight the chickens will be packed in the car for the meeting. Unless something miraculous happens I will take them to my friends farm and put them in the barn at night when they are nice and quiet. They will wake up tomorrow morning with new stresses, new sights, new sounds and a new pecking order.

My son (age 8) had two bad days at school. He came home today from school with a note from his teacher saying he was not following directions and doing his work. I asked him why not and he handed me a note he wrote to our Mayor. He wrote it four times to get it neat enough.

I really did not consider enough how this would affect him.

I think I am going to have a beer.