Updates on the last pages: Neighbor is threatening me and my chickens

[Aunt Angus]

I want a copy, too, haha! These a-holes are ridiculous. Sounds like none of them know what's what.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Good grief!

 

[allenw]

Small town politics at it's finest.

Still somewhere all the laws and regulations are recorded and the village should be able to tell you what one applies in this case. The judge can only enforce what is on the books.

 

[Smileybans]

I want a copy, too, haha! These a-holes are ridiculous. Sounds like none of them know what's what.

So my husband did a little digging on the county website. The “law” that the ZBA chair keeps citing says if the building is within 500ft of the road then the county planning board has to get involved. Nothing about the building having to be 500ft from the road. Just that the county has to be involved. Which means more paperwork for the ZBA chair. That’s why I think he worded it the way he did. To try and scare us so we would drop it so he wouldn’t have to do more paperwork.

Small town politics at it's finest.

Still somewhere all the laws and regulations are recorded and the village should be able to tell you what one applies in this case. The judge can only enforce what is on the books.

You would think. But the only person who has a copy of the laws and regulations is the ordinance officer. The zoning laws for the village and town are online. But the ordinances, which is where the law about chicken housing is, is no where online. It’s only on paper copy. And the people around here don’t know what they’re doing. They get paid to sit on their butts. Literally. That’s why the ZBA chair got so mad that we were making him actually work. Even if the town law was what they were talking about I was already told town laws don’t apply to the village. So it’s only the village zoning laws I have to look at. Which don’t help because they’re so dang vague.

 

[allenw]

It still should be public records and available to anyone who request a copy even if some one has to stand at a copier and copy it off.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

So my husband did a little digging on the county website. The “law” that the ZBA chair keeps citing says if the building is within 500ft of the road then the county planning board has to get involved. Nothing about the building having to be 500ft from the road. Just that the county has to be involved. Which means more paperwork for the ZBA chair. That’s why I think he worded it the way he did. To try and scare us so we would drop it so he wouldn’t have to do more paperwork.



You would think. But the only person who has a copy of the laws and regulations is the ordinance officer. The zoning laws for the village and town are online. But the ordinances, which is where the law about chicken housing is, is no where online. It’s only on paper copy. And the people around here don’t know what they’re doing. They get paid to sit on their butts. Literally. That’s why the ZBA chair got so mad that we were making him actually work. Even if the town law was what they were talking about I was already told town laws don’t apply to the village. So it’s only the village zoning laws I have to look at. Which don’t help because they’re so dang vague.

They are legally required to make a copy available to the public as well for the ordinance laws. Any law, regulation or ordinance for that matter. I would make a formal request for a copy of the ordinances and if denied you are in your right to sue.

 

[LaFleche]

You could file a disciplinary/formal complaint, as there seems to be quite a lot of abuse of authority/office going on.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

They are legally required to make a copy available to the public as well for the ordinance laws. Any law, regulation or ordinance for that matter. I would make a formal request for a copy of the ordinances and if denied you are in your right to sue.

This is called the Sunshine Law, isn't it? If nobody sees the ordinance what's to stop them from changing it secretly? This is not okay. Transparency is required!

 

[MTKitty]

Not to rain on the government bashing parade, but assuming the kennel rules apply to coops (at least until and unless something specific to coops shows up), the section above where you circled in an earlier post made reference to the need for a Special Use Permit before installing a kennel. Was the Special Use Permit obtained?

 

[Smileybans]

Not to rain on the government bashing parade, but assuming the kennel rules apply to coops (at least until and unless something specific to coops shows up), the section above where you circled in an earlier post made reference to the need for a Special Use Permit before installing a kennel. Was the Special Use Permit obtained?

That’s for the towns laws. I dont live in the town. The town and the village have separate laws. Since i live in the village i have to abide by the villages laws. The kennel law also only mentions dogs. However the mayor and ZBA in the village dont even know their own laws. There is also no one to hold them accountable when they decide to not hold meetings or just make decisions. Except the citizens and we barely know the laws because they hide them.


So a lot has happened. I may be repeating some but heres what i have been telling the reporter i contacted. The ZBA was never meeting. All those meetings they said they were having there’s no minutes for. That’s actually illegal, from what i could find, in NYS. NYS has specific zoning laws that towns and villages are supposed to follow. Announce meetings and make them public is one of them. We went to the judge for the appeal and it went to the county. But only because of this 500ft thing. Which is actually in the county zoning laws that if the building is within 500ft of a government road then it goes to the county planning board. The ZBA was trying to stop this so they could deny me my chickens.

I haven’t had to get rid of any of my chickens and moved my Fuzzy Crew out of my house. I wont let my husbandry slack because I’m afraid of these people. We have gotten pre-approved for a loan and are looking at houses. Once we are in contract I’m going to tell all these people to go F-themselves. In the meantime they can do whatever they want. I‘m not getting rid of anyone unless i want to. The County meeting is on the first of November and i have a feeling the 11 people on that board are going to wonder why we are even there. It’s something the village should have been able to take care of themselves. But they were so incompetent and had no idea what they were doing. They were also trying to put out a fire with gasoline. I‘ll be glad when I’m gone and the paper with the article about all this comes out.