OP here. The run build was approved one year ago - last fall - by two town officials, but the trouble is that it was approved verbally over the phone, with no evidence. Now one of those officials (the head of the building department who calls the shots) has gone back on his word and is saying the roof is not okay and he never said it was (WTF); the other guy still says it's fine. First guy outranks him so it's whatever he says. He says I should've asked for his approval in writing, so I have evidence. I didn't realize I needed that, but I guess you can't trust anything and anybody (and I never will again). Like I've said before, this is a gray area in the law because of the ambiguous nature of the run (is it a fence? a building? a pen? how is it classified?) It's up to said guy to interpret the law and decide how to apply it. So I can probably get a lawyer and spend a whole bunch of money, but at the end of the day, I probably won't achieve anything because there is no specific law to be enforced here, it's a matter of interpretation. So that's where we are right now. I've been fighting this for half a year, it's not like I'm passively letting it happen. It's just that I've exhausted all avenues and am left with what seems like the only option left - to take the roof off.
I'm fighting this on multiple fronts, the roof is just the building department side of it. There's a whole other fight with the health department and a very old and ambiguous law that requires 150-foot setbacks for animals housed outside. It was meant for large barn animals like cows and horses, and the town added an exception for chickens a few years ago. However, the exception was very poorly worded and doesn't hold up in court. My neighbor knows this, hired a lawyer and has been pushing hard for the town to enforce the rule and take my chickens away. To please both sides, the town issued me a corrections order for the violation of the 150-foot rule, with the understanding that they will revise the rules to make it explicitly clear that chickens are not to be regulated, and will pass the revisions before the order's deadline, thus making the order null. Several departments have been working together all summer to craft a new version of the rules and rewrite everything regarding animals in the town, to avoid this from happening to other people. I'm actually very grateful that they are taking the time and resources to do this (all spurred by my case), in a year when they also have COVID to deal with. The only problem is that my deadline is November 3rd (as if that day wasn't ominous enough already), and they haven't voted yet because the lawyer on the case is taking too long crafting the language. He wants to avoid any potential loopholes, like the one that spurred the case. Which is great, but I'm running out of time. So now I have 3 options: 1) hope they can give me an extension, which they're looking into doing, 2) give my chickens to somebody else to house temporarily, or 3) bring the chickens into my basement while I wait for the vote. I don't have 150 feet to spare, so there's nowhere else on my property they can go but inside the house, where the setback rule can't reach them. All of this is ridiculous given that the town's intent is to pass the revisions and make all this unnecessary. But the timing sucks. And now instead of carving pumpkins with my kids, I may need to spend the next few days clearing out the basement as emergency shelter for 5 measly pullets that have gotten the whole town tied in a knot...
And it's not hard rain either, it's just drizzling lightly non-stop. Spoiled brats. Another change I've noticed is that they now have a much better view overhead. The roofing was clear, but still, with the corrugation there was enough blur and distortion that they could only make out the shadows of birds flying over. Now they can see everything clearly and have been getting spooked by birds and squirrels flying overhead. They are 27 weeks old and I'm still waiting for the first egg, so whenever I hear the alarm I rush out there all excited, only to find them staring up yelling at some non-existent threat... 
It will be an adjustment. What I'll miss the most, personally, from the roof, would be dry feet. I like sitting in my low beach chair with chickens in my lap, and I really enjoyed their perfectly dry, clean feet. Now they'll be tracking wet stuff on me. Ugh. I'm picking up a truckful of wood chips on Sunday to dump in the run, hopefully that will help.
