Town is trying to make us get rid of our chickens

[Bjam1856]

I live in charlton, New York and my local town is tools me that I have to get rid of my chickens immediately but the coop is ok. I thought this was very weird. All the ordinance says is
Housing of fowl, horses, cattle, sheep, goats or other such livestock on the land or in a
building is prohibited.
It says that only in residential that they don't allow to have no a chance to get a permit. All the surrounding towns allow chickens except ours

 

[DobieLover]

I live in charlton, New York and my local town is tools me that I have to get rid of my chickens immediately but the coop is ok. I thought this was very weird. All the ordinance says is
Housing of fowl, horses, cattle, sheep, goats or other such livestock on the land or in a
building is prohibited.
It says that only in residential that they don't allow to have no a chance to get a permit. All the surrounding towns allow chickens except ours

If your town doesn't permit fowl, you have to remove the flock. You can try to get the ordinance changed but these things take a long time and someone must have complained for Code Enforcement to come knocking on your door.
You can certainly make the effort to get the ordinance changed and use the fact that surrounding municipalities permit the keeping of fowl. I would get copies of their ordinances to write up the proposed ordinance that your Town can consider adopting.
But you are unfortunately in a position of asking forgiveness instead of permission and governing authorities are notoriously unforgiving. Sorry you have to get rid of your flock.

 

[saysfaa]

In some places, the coop would have to go too. The last place I lived didn't allow any secondary building on our lot (combination of the size of our lot and where exactly it was). Some allow only one secondary building or only certain sizes or in certain places on the lot.

I'm sorry you have to give up your chickens there.

 

[bgmathteach]

Hopefully you can rehome them to someone who really wants a flock...and you can fight for the town to change their ordinance. Once it does, you will be set up to start again,since you can keep the coop.

I am so sorry that you have to give up your feathered friends!

If you only have a couple, can you call them 'pets'? My sister managed to keep her 3 hens that way. Her town allowed a maximum of 4 pets in her zoning, and she had a dog, so she was able to keep all 3 of them. She 'proved' they were pets by calling them and picking them up in front of the animal inspector. He declared that they were in deed pets, not farm animals given her relationship with them.

 

[FlipFlopFarmer6279]

I'm so sorry! That's awful!