We won!

[redriver]

City Council recommended that the chicken code be reviewed by the planning commission. So it is moving along!

 

[drinkguiness]

Our local newspaper, the Siskiyou Daily News, has put up a poll on their homepage about this:

http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/

Strongly pro-chicken so far.

 

[andrew6d9]

that needs to change. Those darn people never know what the people want. Write them a nice letter.

 

[redriver]

Quote:
Just voted! Over 200 people also voted and it was VERY strongly leading towards the "yes" votes. 85% - Yes, 11% - No, and 3% were unsure.

 

[redriver]

Planning meeting scheduled for June.

Awesome letter to the editor in yesterday's paper. Read it and laugh like I did.
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor

Also, the paper still has a poll on if Yreka should allow hens or not. You do not need to log in to vote and you can vote once a day. It is on the right side of the front page towards the bottom. Help us out!
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/

Thanks!

 

[WriterofWords]

I shared your links on my Facebook page and with my Yreka friends.

 

[CopperCT]

Quote:
Just voted....good luck!!

 

[redriver]

Another planning meeting scheduled for July 20. At the last meeting the planning commission was somewhat surprised at the number and passion of the pro-chicken folks. Not a single anti-chicken person showed... Or at least they didn't speak up if they were there. I think they were going to recommend that hens not be allowed until they realized how out of touch they were about the issue. They decided to think about it and review the information they were given some more and make a decision on the twentieth. Their recommendation will be given to the city council, and then they will make a final (hopefully) decision on this.

Recently, we have gotten a sign campaign going around town. Check out the Yreka City Chickens Facebook page to see what our signs look like. Other people who don't have signs, but support the issue, have been putting chicken yard art into their front yards. It has been really quite amazing to realize how many people want chicken, and how many people already have them! Seems obvious to me that changing the code is LONG overdue.

Redriver

 

[redriver]

All right, here is the update.

Planning Commission were a bunch of you know whats and unanimously voted to recommend that the City Council not change the code to allow chickens. Took them two months and two meetings to decide.

Here is the article about in from our local paper.
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/features/x1259738123/Hen-debate-continues

The City Council met two weeks later to be officially told of the planning commission's recommendation. They talked about what their stances on the issue were.

Rob and Rory were against it. Rob has always been against it, on the basis that dogs will bark at chickens and dogs might get into someone's yard and kill the chickens, which would then allow the chicken owner to shoot the dog for attacking their livestock. Yeah, dont ask me what I think about that weird bit of logic. Rory, the Mayor, who had been apathetic about it in the past, has decided that she was against it because she had so many people calling her about it and was ticked off that people were bugging her about it. Hello? If these two run for anything again, I will know who not to vote for.

Bryan, John, and David seemed for it. Bryan (who originally introduced the possibility of changing the code to allow chickens), said that he never imagined that something he introduced in April would still be undetermined in August. He also said that he was unsure if he wanted to go forward now with deciding on this, as our city staff are crazy busy right now with several high dollar projects like a new courthouse and city water system. He considered tabling the topic until staff was less busy. John seemed upset that Bryan was considering tabling the topic, and pointed out the packed crowd, almost all of whom were present for the chicken issue. David said he could see no reason an acceptable compromise couldn't be reached to allow people to have chickens. He suggested that perhaps permission from adjacent neighbors be added to the proposed code.

The vast majority of people who attended both meetings were for chickens. Most people who spoke were also for for it. I found it telling that of the few people who spoke against it, one was (literally) a schizophrenic who told stories about bobcats, and the other was a lady from a neighboring town who somehow managed to speak THREE times about some United Nations conspiracy and how community gardens and chickens were just the beginning. A lady who has been against the proposed code since the beginning was actually laughed at by the audience when she suggested that a particular proponent was "selfish" for wanting to change the code. I don't think she did herself any favors because David gave her the smack-down a little later about being civil.

In the end, John asked that the proposed chicken code change be put on a future agenda in September to be decided once and for all. Hopefully, that will give the city staff time to finish current projects.

Here is the article about that particular meeting. It somehow managed to make front page news.
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/topstories/x181934338/Hen-decision-expected-by-September

Outside of those two meetings, there is some interesting stuff happening. The night before the council meeting, there was a chicken sign thief roaming the town. Unfortunately, quite a few signs were stolen. BUT, the other night a bunch of the stolen signs were dumped on someone's property. Luckily, the owner was for chickens, and we were able to get them back.

We also have a pro-chicken petition that we are getting signatures left and right on. The main opponent started an anti-chicken petition a few months ago and got a little over one hundred signatures, as of the most recent city council meeting. The pros started one to counter hers, and were able to get almost 300 signatures in just five days! Yeah!!!

A couple of letters to the editor were written about the subject. To be fair I will post both of them.
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/opinio...2/No-chickens-Hens-would-upset-city-structure
and
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/opinio...2609125/Hen-debate-Smoothing-ruffled-feathers

Even some regular opinion columnists have written in support of city hens. However, the paper seems to be a little slow on getting those two online. I will post them as soon as they are available.

So, that is the news for now. I ask that if anyone knows of cities that require neighbor's permission to let me know which cities they are. I'd like to read up on the subject. I know St. Petersburg, FL is one but there are more out there, I'm sure.

Thanks,
redriver

 

[redriver]

Couple more letters to the editor. One for and one against.

http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x1153507708/The-hen-issue-is-a-minor-one

And against...
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x1153509977/Hens-would-wreak-havok

Enjoy!