Vernon, CT*UPDATE* Voted down :( but will try again!!!!

[CopperCT]

Quote:
Nice Job Amy!!! I will be there tonight with my fingers crossed!!!

I look forward to seeing you. I visited the planner on Monday too and he said he was going to go for 6 hens on a 1/4 acre and 12 on a half acre. He said nothing at all about putting forward a proposal to prohibit them all together which I took as a good sign. We'll find out soon I guess.

 

[CopperCT]

Well the anti-chicken forces prevailed at the P&Z meeting tonight even though there were HALF as many of them as there were those who supported the measure to keep 12 chickens on more than 1/2 an acre with 4 sq ft in the coop and 15 sq feet in the run and keeping the coop more than 25 feet from the street and 15 feet from any residence. They voted 6-1 to deny the zoning rule allowing chickens.

It was clearly a setup.... they had a four page typed motion to deny the new rule to keep poultry that had been emailed to them all well prior to the meeting but they spent 40 minutes before that sounding like they liked the idea of passing the new rule. My neighbors who were there and clearly good friends with most of the P&Z board will be on the phone first thing tomorrow to the zoning enforcement officer to demand the removal of my chickens.

There were an equal number of kids as adults at the hearing tonight all wanting to keep their pets and preserve their Vo-ag and 4H projects who got to see our nanny state in action...I was embarrassed to be an adult in that room and show all of them how ridiculous our government has become. Kids today are told over and over about going green and being self-sufficient, going organic and eating healthy wholesome foods and some of them even go to Vo-ag and 4H to learn how to do so but are told sorry....they are out of luck in Vernon by a bunch of people still quoting the town charter from 1953. The P&Z can allow strip clubs, pawn brokers, and tattoo parlors to operate downtown directly across from the town hall but keeping 12 chickens completely contained on a 1/2 acre?????? Oh no we CAN"T have THAT!!! Chickens are dirty and attract predators, vermin, and flies and carry disease.......give me a break!

Sorry...I'm more than a little steamed at the moment.

My heart was breaking for my kids who will probably lose their pets and for all the other kids who are attached to theirs and simply want a project so they can complete their Vo-ag degree.

I guess the only silver lining is they approved a motion to work with UCONN to create a future matrix for "home agriculture" which may include expanding what can be kept in town to include all poultry (turkeys, ducks, geese, chickens), goats, rabbits, swine, horses, sheep and cows. I plan to get on that committee and push for this matrix to come up sooner rather than later and hopefully the other chicken fanciers in town will join me. In the meantime I need to determine what the zoning enforcement officer's intends to tell me about keeping my current birds. I have a feeling it will be to re-home them but one can always hope.

Not a good day for chickens in Vernon.

So sad.......

 

[seamripper1313]

Oh Liz,

I know how you feel. I am so heart broken. I briefly spoke with that middle town council person as he came back from the bathroom. I don't know if you heard him, he said they wanted to pass it, just not the way it was written. That could mean anything I suppose. My husband, daughters and I keep saying, what are we going to do with the chicks. We, as well as the chicks are attached to each other. They come running when they hear and see us. They are so cute. I have been pouting all day today about loosing them. I would love to be on the committee, but how do we do that? Any ideas?
Don't worry, your neighbor will get her bad karma back. Trust me.

 

[CopperCT]

Quote:
Hi Amy:

Yeah I know...I'm still bummed about it. Your chicks must be adorable!!!......they come running when they are all grown up too and it's still really cute even a year++ later. I don't think I asked before...what breeds did you get?

I feel worse for all those kids who were there including yours and mine. I won't go into again but it's just so senseless. Yes I did hear you speaking to Mr Morgan. He is the chairman of the P&Z board. I'm not sure I entirely believe him about wanting to pass it. I mean what else could he say with all those young people standing around him? I've served on a couple committees with him in the past and he's a good man but he's tough and plays by the rules. I do give him credit for making sure a motion to create a 'home agriculture" matrix got voted on. It's not alot...but he didn't completely shut the door.

So on the next step.......

I went to talk to the Town planner today and asked if a committee could be made that included citizens so we had input into what this matrix would look like. He at first said he didn't think so but then said he would ask Mr. Mealy about it and also said another board member expressed interest in working on it....I'm pretty sure he named your neighbor (Mr Cohen?) as the one who wanted to work on it too. If I have the name right maybe you can see if he'd be willing to convince the others to work with some of the residents to help put this together. The planner at the end seemed open to the idea of making a committee and I told him I was very interested in being on it if they did make one. So we'll see...I will definitely keep following up. I said my biggest interest was making sure we got something in place sooner rather than later and he completely agreed...he said he wanted this done as soon as possible.

Then I went to see the zoning officer...shockingly my neighbor hasn't called in yet. I asked if he would defer his cease and desist until the results of this matrix were known. He was very sympathetic but expressed doubt about that. He said he didn't intend to do anything until he got a letter from the P&Z formally dismissing the motion and giving him instructions from there. That could take a while. Then he'll write me letter letting me know what I needed to do. So I'll wait for his letter and we'll go from there.

So there's a little bit of hope. With some sweat equity we might be able to get this done. It's not a NO forever at least.

 

[CopperCT]

By the way Amy....... I "PMed" you the other night giving you my contact information so that hopefully we can stay in touch and maybe get our town's regs changed for good

Liz

 

[seamripper1313]

What is PMed?

I don't know what is going on. Spoke to the planner today, he said that Mealy worked on a matrix for south windsor. They haven't gotten together yet to start working on it. Saw Mr. kaplan who said that they were only doing a study. He only wants 4-5 chickens per family. I need to get the chicks out soon, they are 5 weeks old. What became of your chickens?
Amy

 

[CopperCT]

Quote:
On PMs......If you go to messages on the top bar of the page there should be a message there from me if you are signed in to BYC.

I don't think much is going on with the town. I've asked to be on a committee twice now to build this "matrix" and haven't heard anything yet. I'll be asking again soon and if there's no response will see about how I can get a rule before the P&Z myself. I'll have to look up what they have in place for South Windsor for poultry.....I wonder if their matrix was ever adopted or if it was just another "study".

As to our chickens they will be re-homed. Our neighbor has complained again and we got a letter from the zoning officer asking me to remove the birds. We agreed to comply in the next thirty days. We have found good homes for them and they will be going away next weekend.

We will miss them alot...they make living in Rockville fun.

I feel confident that if my neighbor had not complained, the Town would not have done anything about them....ever. If you have good neighbors you should be OK. In our case we know the complaints would never stop so it wasn't worth it to keep them. We also feel we need to get "right" with the Town so we can then legitimately see if we can help get the rules changed in Vernon....Oh....we'll be building the highest privacy fence between our neighbors and our house that we can afford. We've had enough of her complaining.......more than enough.

Good luck with your 5 week olds....I bet by now they are making things a bit dusty for you

 

[Vancat]

Hi, new here....any updates on this? I was hoping to get a few chickens in the future....

 

[Moonkit]

Quote:
On PMs......If you go to messages on the top bar of the page there should be a message there from me if you are signed in to BYC.

I don't think much is going on with the town. I've asked to be on a committee twice now to build this "matrix" and haven't heard anything yet. I'll be asking again soon and if there's no response will see about how I can get a rule before the P&Z myself. I'll have to look up what they have in place for South Windsor for poultry.....I wonder if their matrix was ever adopted or if it was just another "study".

As to our chickens they will be re-homed. Our neighbor has complained again and we got a letter from the zoning officer asking me to remove the birds. We agreed to comply in the next thirty days. We have found good homes for them and they will be going away next weekend.

We will miss them alot...they make living in Rockville fun.

I feel confident that if my neighbor had not complained, the Town would not have done anything about them....ever. If you have good neighbors you should be OK. In our case we know the complaints would never stop so it wasn't worth it to keep them. We also feel we need to get "right" with the Town so we can then legitimately see if we can help get the rules changed in Vernon....Oh....we'll be building the highest privacy fence between our neighbors and our house that we can afford. We've had enough of her complaining.......more than enough.

Good luck with your 5 week olds....I bet by now they are making things a bit dusty for you

Sounds like it might be time to get a pack of Beagles as pets.. the barking will drive them mad.

 

[cameronchris]

Liz,
I lived in your area a very long time ago. I now live in Montana and am raising chickens here. A friend of mine is from Vernon and is dying to start a hen house.
What I wanted to point out to you concerns the folks who "have had chickens for awhile". The CT Right to Farm Act specifically addresses agricultural operations that have been in existence for more than one year and offers them protection from city and local government.
Just thought you might want to ckeck it out.