Victory by a narrow margin!!

[MoliCoop]

Well, last month my public hearing to allow chickens ended with a continuation until this month so the board can do more research. Two members were absent during the vote last night and the Village President was against it but the other two present approved it!!! 5 hens, no roosters, no outside slaughtering, no roadside stand to sell eggs or chicks, 3 complaints in 12 months revolks permit, food in airtight container, 25 feet from any neighbors home, no free ranging, coop must be contained, must meet all building and zoning codes. Requires a conditional use permit and on a case by case basis.. Dane, WI


WOO HOO!!!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

My best advice, having gone through this multiple times, is to do your best to get city council members to actually visit a nice backyard coop setup or 2 so they have a clue about what they're legislating rather than making rules about what they imagine chickens to be like.
They find out that chickens, aren't noisy, don't smell and don't destroy property values.
It's one of the most difficult things to get them to do but if you can, it helps a lot.
I've been involved in this process in 7 different cities including my own. We were successful to some degree in 6 of them and failed completely in one.
In my city, all of us that already had chickens could basically continue to do what we were doing except we had to get a permit. for new keepers, they must have an acre of land with 5 chickens allowed, one of which can be a rooster.
My permit is for 85 chickens and 5 roosters. WOO HOO!!!
Several cities around here allow roosters, however those that do, don't bother to regulate at all.
This is the first city I've heard of that wrote legislation and allow roos.
What helped us is the fact that I had had chickens and roosters for many years and my 3 closest neighbors didn't know I had chickens. The city didn't know either until there was a story about me in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

We have a meetup group with over 600 members. Whenever a city is considering legislation, we come from all over and pack city hall.

 

[nikki1]

Well, last month my public hearing to allow chickens ended with a continuation until this month so the board can do more research. Two members were absent during the vote last night and the Village President was against it but the other two present approved it!!! 5 hens, no roosters, no outside slaughtering, no roadside stand to sell eggs or chicks, 3 complaints in 12 months revolks permit, food in airtight container, 25 feet from any neighbors home, no free ranging, coop must be contained, must meet all building and zoning codes. Requires a conditional use permit and on a case by case basis.. Dane, WI


WOO HOO!!!

Wow! If they had that many stipulations for having a dog or a cat there'd be a lot fewer animal issues! With a rabies shot and a licence you can have a 200 pound mastiff, but if you want a 3 pound silkie you'd better toe the line...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

91 of the 100 largest cities in the US allow chickens. The smaller the city, the more likely they are to disallow chickens. I find this fact very strange.

In my area, counting the city of St. Louis which isn't technically part of St. Louis county, there are 92 cities in St. Louis county. That means, with so many tiny municipalities elbow to elbow here, theoretically one person may be able to have unlimited chickens and roosters, his neighbor that lives directly across the street may be limited to 4 hens and a neighbor at the end of the block can be denied having any chickens at all because they live in 3 different cities.

When cities decide to regulate poultry, the city attorneys will go look at the chicken laws across the country and adopt what they find there - no rhyme or reason there.
The city of Frontenac near here, a very high end area, recently considered allowing chickens. I was successful to get 3 of their council members to attend a 1 hour chicken class I gave at a Williams-Sonoma store with a slant toward regulations for the councils benefit.
Among other things, I gave reasons why setback rules, bird numbers and size restrictions were actually bad for the chickens and the residents.

 

[MoliCoop]

Wow! If they had that many stipulations for having a dog or a cat there'd be a lot fewer animal issues! With a rabies shot and a licence you can have a 200 pound mastiff, but if you want a 3 pound silkie you'd better toe the line...

Too funny. I never thought of it that way. still laughing about it.!!

 

[MoliCoop]

Of course the one desenter mentioned that they are doing all these local improvements and this seems to be going the opposite direction they are trying to take. Hello?? there are less that 1100 people in town. country is in my back yard. We have (1) gas station, (2) churches and (3) bars. No grocery but (2) manufacturing facilities. We are not a big metro area. We are a farming community and trying to run away from that fact isn't good for anyone in town. We moved out to this area because that is what the town is.

 

[nikki1]

Of course the one desenter mentioned that they are doing all these local improvements and this seems to be going the opposite direction they are trying to take. Hello?? there are less that 1100 people in town. country is in my back yard. We have (1) gas station, (2) churches and (3) bars. No grocery but (2) manufacturing facilities. We are not a big metro area. We are a farming community and trying to run away from that fact isn't good for anyone in town. We moved out to this area because that is what the town is.

When we were house hunting a year and a half ago we discovered that lots of cities in western Washington allow chickens, but small towns, no way! Teeny tiny Morton and Mossyrock don't allow them at all...funny considering that there are some major chicken farms just outside Mossyrock!!! Now, if you live in downtown Seattle, you're fine! It makes no sense at all. I think sometimes little towns want to seem all big and metropolitan by making stupid, picky rules!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It really makes no sense. The wealthiest communities around here either specifically allow by ordinance or have no restrictions of any kind against poultry.
But our smallest ghetto and trailer trash one horse towns say no way to chickens.