Someone Complained, Chickens Must Go -- Joliet, IL

[greenegglover]

I agree with chickens being allowed! Most cities I know of only allow 3 hens, but I say if you have the sqaure feet in your yard for more ...why not have more?? I was an outlaw before with 3 acres in the country. My township said you had to have 10 acres to have chickens.....township trustee was at my house before and saw chickens and he didnt care, said it was an old rule and nobody has taken the time to change it.

I hope you stay persistant to get this changed....and hope you can find someone to house them for you until you get the rules changed.

 

[Big A Chickens]

Hi I signed from Palmetto, Georgia. Good Luck !!!

 

[Gargoyle]

I thought we were in Unincorporated Will County, but the City of Joliet sent the notice. We pay taxes to both Joliet and Plainfield.

Make sure of where you are. We're in unincorporated kane County, but we're St. Charles township and pay taxes to them, along with some taxes to Elgin. However, the county zoning laws apply to us, not St. Charles or Elgin.

It is possible they sent the notice by mistake if you are right on the border, they don't always read the maps correctly.

 

[agrippina]

Unfortunately Gargoyle, I think they're right. I looked at the map a little closer this time.

 

[alohachickens]

I signed for you! Hope it helps!

 

[erinszoo]

I signed for you and posted to facebook. I have a few friends on there that are chicken people too! Hopefully it helps.

 

[chickortreat]

Why not, rather than sign a petition, folks just buck it? Go buy some chickens. Ignore stupid, nonsense regulations such as these. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 1:9, " Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers..." In other words, the whole purpose of law is to control those who have no moral boundaries. Laws telling me I cannot own but xx number of chickens are not worth acknowledging to me. I understand the principle behind such "laws", in that they regulate what you can own in certain areas, as pertaining to those around you. Perhaps no roosters in town, but no hens is hogwash. I've worked in neighborhoods where the dogs didn't shut up all day long. Lot more noise than a flock of hens.

 

[downsm75]

So I guess we didn't read the ordinances thoroughly enough, or we didn't consider 3 hens "farm animals," but apparently, the City of Joliet does .... and they've informed us that we have to get rid of our girls or be fined.

I'd rather fight than roll over and give up, so I started a signon.org petition, and was hoping some of you (especially those of you in Illinois) would sign your name to it.

You can find the petition here: Allow Backyard Chickens in Joliet, IL.

Thanks for your help and let's keep up the good fight!

My husban and I signed. Hope it helps!

 

[Leghorn99]

We live next door to you in Plainfield. The Village of Plainfield agreed to revisit their ordinance and are currently collecting input from its residents. Based upon the feedback, the board will decide whether or not to revise to code. Last month, unincorporated Will County changed it's ordinance to allow a small flock (I think 10 hens) with a $650 special permit fee. They may choose to revise the permit fee... cost prohibitive!

 

[Bobby Basham]

What a shame...

I can't believe the mindset of these antiquated city ordinances, HOA and neighbors. I haven't been around chickens since I grew up on a farm in rural western Pennsylvania in the mid 50's/early 60's, and am considering getting my own in my pristine neighborhood. All the houses have gravel landscaping on the front and sides, beautiful trees on both sides of driveway, and if you don't control the weeds, you will get a nastygram.

My backyard is huge, a complete dirt landscape with 5-ft sidewalls shared by two neighbors. My back wall faces a culdesac, there's also a culdesac in front, so I'm sorta living on a Penninsula.

Our Tucson city ordinance states that you can have up to 24 hens, no roosters, while the HOA says you can have a "reasonable number" of poultry. The bylaws didn't state a reasonable number, but at least they acknowledge poultry as long as they're not being used for commercial purposes, nand their housing must be 50-ft minimum from neighbors.

I''ve started to get cold feet about getting maybe five hens, worrying about the noise they make after laying. It seems that I always think about others before myself. I'll run out in the backyard to have a cigarette rather than expose my non-smoking visitors. I have a right to smoke in my own house, 'cause I pay all the bills up in this camp, but at the same time be considerate of others. But, I got two side neighbors and an adjacent neighbor with yapping dogs and one constantly howling/barking Pitbull. Should I feel guilty about a few clucking hens?

Sorry, I need to go back to the original posting and sign up. Y'all know that raising chickens has become one of the latest fashions over the years. Maybe get a few trained chickens, put them on leashes and stroll through the neighborhood. Keep a pooper scooper and plastic bags. Get some huggable, pettable ones...you know the little kids will flock right to them and want to hold/pet them, and bug their parents to get some.

My backyard, again, is very big, and I want to have a nice coop/run and some raised beds for planting veggies, etc. I went to MyPetChickens and fell in love with one of the coops featured there, called the Bungalow. Yeah, it's pricey at $489, but I love it, plus $175 for two runs. I could probably build it myself since I know my way around power tools, but I just don't have the energy and motivation.

The down side of these Pre-Fab coups is that they are thinly made and may last through one season. I haven't thoroughly researched the above mentioned coop, other than what's on the website, but there has to be some American-made coups better than those that come from China, etc.

I apologize for not reading all the older posts, but there is so much info here, and this topic may have been posted before about the pre-fab stuff. I try to read all old posts/archives of any newsgroup before posting a redundant question.

You Tucson folks (actually anyone) can google 7153 S Shipmans Tale Court, and take an aerial view of my back yard. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

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