UPDATE: I appreciate all the attention this has garnered. On April 21st a small group of citizens will be proposing a text amendment to the Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of Concord. Hopefully this will bring the girls one step closer to legalization. In the meantime they're being moved to a secure, undisclosed location. The big stinker is that the the price tag for the text amendment is $400. We're raising funds locally but the date of the hearing is fast approaching and the money is due soon. Anyone who wants to help can click on the Donate button in the right side column of this blog. The money will be used to offset the cost of making it legal for *everyone* to keep a few hens on their property inside the city limits of Concord.
Click for more information about the Concord Chicken Club or send me an email at: aaron at henandharvest dot com.
Thanks.
7 comments:
What are you going to do? Is this because of your petition? B@st@rds.
That sucks! I wish I could offer some advice on fighting Town Hall, but I can't. I've done it (for a different reason) and won, but I wouldn't recommend it. It took two years, and it was incredibly stressful at a time in my life when I didn't need added stress.
Let us know if you want us to write a scathing letter to your town hall ;). I mean, municipalities all over the US are rescinding the no-chicken laws, and here your community is enforcing theirs. Seems kind of backward.
might want to contact Durham HENS. They just won the urban chicken battle up here. However, my guess is that you will lose this particular personal case if you keep them, as it's clear that the zoning folks are not on your side (they slapped you with this as soon as you went public - slimy). Perhaps time for a media outreach? "Budget-conscious family gets big bill for chickens, film at 11"
Oh, crap Aaron. I'm so sorry. Would your neighbors be willing to provide a total of 2 acres that they make available to your hens?
I'll organize a phone-attack with my readers if you want to give me a phone number for the city! This is bad!
Sharon
Oh dear!
I'm sure you've found plenty of links already, but I remembered an article about Vancouver just recently voting (unanimously, at that) to make city chickens legal so I did a quick search on some Canadian cities. There are a few that are open minded now, it seems!
Here is a link that seemed like it might contain some helpful info for you, including one city that had a 'forty family trial run' ... maybe you could propose a six month trial as a baby step towards sanity?
http://www.ffcf.bc.ca/NewSiteFiles/programs/farm-city/urban-chickens.html
Oh my. Let me know what you decide to do - I plan to have chickens against local ordinances.
And The Rhizome Collective (http://www.rhizomecollective.org/)is fighting eviction. Not a good week for permaculture.
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