Unincorporated Jefferson County, CO

I've been on a mailing list for the county as they work on the new zoning. I'm pasting the text of the email here so you can review and comment on the changes and give support to your chicken loving neighbors!!

Hello! Jefferson County Planning & Zoning is processing several revisions to the Zoning Resolution. In general, the revisions allow backyard chickens and bees and consolidate the agricultural, commercial, corridor, industrial, mobile home, mountain residential, residential, and suburban residential districts. A draft of these changes is available for public review on our website. The direct link to the changes is http://jeffco.us/planning/planning_T59_R65.htm, it can also be navigated to by going to the main Planning & Zoning page (http://planning.jeffco.us) and then following the link under the “Zoning Resolution Revisions” announcement. Please email comments to Heather Gutherless or Nina Ruiz by February 20, 2013. More information regarding these changes is outlined after the Hearing Dates.

Hearing Dates:
Planning Commission:
Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 6:15pm
Board of County Commissioners: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 8:00 am.
Both hearings are held in Hearing Room 1 of the Jefferson County Administration and Courts Building, 100 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden. Public testimony is welcomed.

Bees and Chickens:
The proposed regulations regarding keeping chickens and bees on residential properties are located in Section 5 – Accessory Uses. These revisions are a result of many inquiries and requests to keep chickens and/or bees on residentially zone properties. Currently, chickens and bees are allowed in the County’s Agricultural Districts and chickens are allowed in the Suburban Residential Districts, Mountain Residential Districts and the Residential-One District.

The main changes to this section include:
  • Allows for the keeping of bees and chickens on single family detached, two-family dwelling or duplex residential lots through a miscellaneous permit.
  • Maximum number of chickens allowed is 6. No roosters allowed.
  • Allows one bee hive for each 4,000 square feet of lot area.
  • Permits for either bees or chickens may be revoked at any time for failure to comply with the provisions of the Zoning Resolution or any other local, state or federal laws.

The Planning Director discussed the benefits of keeping backyard chickens in a blog post on November 20, 2012. You can view that post by going to: http://jeffco.us/roller/jeffcoblog/date/20121120

District Consolidation
The Zone Districts are currently broken into one section for each specific zone district. For example, the Agricultural-One District is its’ own section, Agricultural-Two District is its’ own section, and Agricultural-Thirty-five District is its’ own section. Planning Staff has consolidated all related zone districts into one section and has reformatted the information on uses, setbacks, heights and lot sizes into chart format, rather than in paragraph format. So in the consolidation, all Agricultural Zone Districts are shown in the Agricultural District section, rather than being split into 3 different sections. This consolidation was completed for the agricultural, commercial, corridor, industrial, mobile home, mountain residential, residential, and suburban residential districts. For the most part, the consolidation did not change the uses and standards in the districts, however, there were some instances where language needed to be changed. Additionally, other changes that staff felt were minor, housekeeping-type changes are also included in these revisions.

All changes are outlined in the “Summary of Proposed Changes” sheet that is on the same website as the draft text.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Heather Gutherless and Nina Ruiz

Heather Gutherless
[email protected]
303-271-8716


Nina Ruiz
[email protected]
303-271-8732
 
Hi all!

Just was on JeffCo's zoning website, and thought you'd all like to know when/where to go to make sure our opinions are heard! I'm pasting the text from the site, and I've also included the link to see what the revisions will be specifically:

The full text of the revisions are available for public review. Please submit comments by February 20, 2013. Planning Commission hearing is scheduled for March 6, 2013 at 6:15pm. The Board of County Commissioners hearing is scheduled for March 26, 2013 at 8:00am. Both hearings will be held in Hearing Room 1 of the Jefferson County Administration and Courts Building, 100 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden. Public testimony is encouraged at both hearings.

http://jeffco.us/jeffco/planning_up...undate_2_5_13/ZR_Section_5_Accessory_Uses.pdf

Hope to see you all there!

Janine
 
I attended the hearing on the 6th - if you haven't attended one I suggest it, it was actually very informative. Anyways - the board voted 4 yes 2 no - so I am also crossing my fingers for the 26th (I will be attending also)! We are so excited - we had chickens and ducks in Lakewood growing up. Do you have any good places to get a chicken coop in this area?

Kathi
 
Although I haven't been on this site in a while, I've been following the progress thru the Columbine Community Courier and the
local Hub articles. Thanks, Danica, for posting the info you've received. (Sorry I missed your message from December). I too will be keeping my fingers crossed and hope to attend the hearing on the 26th!
 
Well it is official - for a $50.00 miscellaneous permit you can now have up to 6 chickens in Jefferson County :)
 
You just go down to the planning department at the court house and get a misc. permit - for chickens. It is 50.00
 
OH yes!!! I am getting mine next weekend :) What breeds are you getting and what did you do for the coop? Thanks in advance
 

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