Wake Forest, NC - Working for lighter chicken ordinanace

[CatawbaCoops]

SCOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You saw it here on Backyard Chickens 1st!

Wake Forest Commissioners Tackle Chicken Ordinance

By Dave Bissette

WAKE FOREST - Emily Cole entered the Town of Wake Forest's monthly Board of Commissioners meeting with butterflys in her stomach. After several months of petitioning and talking to neighbors and Wake Forest residents at the local farmer's market, her quest to change the town's ordinances regarding the keeping of backyard chickens is up for discussion.

After several votes on rezoning permits, item 7E comes up for discussion. Mayor Vivian Jones acknowledges Cole's presence in the audience and asks her if she has a statement prepared. What ensues during the next 15 minutes is a lively dialog between Cole, Mayor Jones, and Commissioners Frank Drake, Chris Kaeberlin, and Margaret Stinnett. Clearly, the board is enjoying this conversation.

Cole's presentation pulls information from many sources regarding the keeping of urban poultry and addresses common concerns regarding noise, hygiene, and housing. Critical issues that she includes are:

* Less than 20 chickens per household
* Chickens must be housed properly in enclosed coops or fencing
* The keeping of roosters requires adherence to the current livestock ordinances

Commissioner Kaeberlin listened to the presentation with a smile on his face. "I think this is a great idea." he said.

When asked how Cole came up with the number of 20 birds by Commissioner Drake, she proceeds to educate the board about the life cycle and laying habits of chickens. She concludes that, since these chickens will likely be pets, they will continue to be family members long past their productive laying years.

Rather than putting these chickens out to pasture or taken to a slaughterhouse, Cole believes that 20 chickens will continue to give a family a steady source of eggs over the course the the bird's natural lifetime.

As the owner of the only permitted flock of chickens inside the town limits, David Bissette asked to address the commissioner's more technical questions regarding the keeping of backyard poultry.

"I invite any member of the board to come to my house on South Main Street, two blocks from here, with their questions about the keeping of chickens. My wife or I would be happy to answer your questions to the best of our ability." said Bissette.

"I love your chickens." said Commissioner Stinnett after Bissette had finished speaking.

The Board of Commissioners unanimously approved to proceed with researching the amendment of the ordinance. The amendment will be drafted by the town's legal counsel and presented for public hearing and comments at the September 16th board meeting.

"What a relief," says Cole after the discussion is over, and before her television interview with local news channel NBC-17.

 

[SewingDiva]

Great news!

 

[stacym]

Way to go Emily!!!

 

[emandmikey]

I couldn't have done it without Dave and Mitzi's help!!! Also there have been a ton of folks on here who have offered advice, and I really appreciate that too - what a wonderful community to be a part of!!! Thanks everyone! Now we just have to get past that public hearing - hopefully no one will show up with a major opposition to the issue! I can't wait to get my own little peepers!

 

[Squeaky]

Well done! My peeplets pass on their congratulations also (well, actually they just kind of chirped but we all know what they meant!)

 

[emandmikey]

An update on Wake Forest:

I attended the Commissioner's Work Session last night, and left the meeting a little disappointed.

At their last meeting, two weeks ago, the Commissioners asked some staffers to work on drafting an amended ordinance to be presented at this work session for review and consideration for a public hearing. Apparently the duty was delegated to Bill Summers, one of the town planners, who is in charge of issuing the livestock permits currently. He very simply stated, after snickering a little bit about how little he knew of the issue, that he suggested that the simplest change would be to amend the current ordinance to omit hens numbering fewer than five (5). In other words, you would not need a permit from the town to keep 5 or less hens in the town limits. If you wanted more than 5, you would need to submit to the current permitting process for livestock.

Now... this is a step forward... keeping hens would be allowed without a permit - that's great! But in my opinion the number 5 is too low! I had suggested that they allow 20 because of the diminished egg production once the animal gets to a certain age.... this guy wasn't taking that into consideration at all. I wonder if he's read the information I put together for the Commissioners... maybe I should send it to him...

Anyway - that's basically what transpired about chickens at the meeting tonight. I stayed to the end, and spoke with one of the Commissioners, Chris Kaeberlein, who also would like to see the number a little bit higher. He suggested 10. Really, that would be better, but larger families would still be out of luck if it were capped at that number. I am emailing all of the Commissioners tonight about the issue... and I hope they'll support a higher number when the time to vote comes around.

The Wake Weekly will be doing a story about the meeting later this week (Thursday) and I wouldn't be surprised to see something about it in the Wake Forest Gazette too. I just hope all of our local supporters will come out on September 16th to show that they want this ordinance changed with a reasonable amount of hens allowed.

 

[CatawbaCoops]

http://www.catawbacoops.com/its-official-wake-forest-votes-in-new-ordinance-to-allow-urban-chickens.html

It's Official! Wake Forest Commissioners Vote In New Ordinance to Allow Urban Chickens.

By David Bissette

WAKE FOREST, NC. - The Town of Wake Forest's Board of Commissioners voted tonight to approve the chicken ordinance amendment. In a 4 to 1 vote, Commissioners Chris Kaeberlein, Anne Hines, Frank Drake, and Margaret Stinnett all ruled to append the town ordinances with an urban chicken amendment. The amendment allows for the keeping of up to ten chickens inside the town limits, excluding roosters.

Dissenting vote Commissioner Pete Thibodeau voiced concerns that the ordinance amendment was not restrictive enough. His concerns were that people would house the birds in their front yards and that there were no provisions in the amendment for how the chickens were to be housed. "We could have chickens running around in the town's major streets." said Thibodeau.

Commissioner Drake countered each point, reminding Thibodeau that there were not provisions for the keeping of other pets like dogs and cats in the ordinances either.

The vote was taken after an open microphone discussion. Emily Cole addressed the board stating that she felt that the town's legal council proposal of five birds was too limited given the period of time that a chicken lays eggs verses it's lifespan. She then proposed that the amendment allow either ten or twelve birds. The assenting commissioners agreed to her proposal and increased the limit on urban chickens to ten during their vote.

Former California resident Jeff Boldizar shared with the board news of the Fair Oaks Chicken Festival. A suburb of Pasedena, Fair Oaks can be considered to be one of the chicken friendliest places in the US. Chickens are allowed to "free range" alongside humans on downtown streets and in city parks. While not advocating such a policy for Wake Forest, he did mention that he thought the trend towards urban agriculturalism would mark the town as a place where people would want to reside.

"I'm very excited about this vote," said David Bissette, owner of the only permitted chickens inside the town limits. "This really opens an opportunity for people to becomes more more familair with their food source. That is something that has been lacking in the American diet and way of life for over 50 years now."

 

[emandmikey]

Nice post Dave! Thanks so much for being there to support Urban Chickens!!!! Em

 

[SewingDiva]

Congratulations to all of you!

~Phyllis

 

[SpottedCrow]

Awesome!