Yep, that’s right. After the article in the paper came out about us and our chickens, we had a visit from the city Code Inspection office. Apparently we are only allowed to have ONE chicken because the code says you can only have one per 1/10 of an acre and we have .16 acres. That was not what we were initially told, but apparently that’s the case. No matter that we have an EMPTY FIELD behind our house. Or that there is a house on the other side of the fence with horses…no that would make too much sense to allow chickens in our backyard.
The Chicken Ticket
So, now we are going to have to fight for our right to have chickens. Crazy. I wasn’t really even interested in this fight. I just wanted to be left alone, my property, my business. And get this, when I called the city to find out if we could get a variance for our chickens, they said it would be $300! It is considered a MAJOR variance. A major variance? For three little animals that weigh about 2 pounds each? And there are no guarantees that we would get it! And come to find out from this particular planner that there is NO limit to the number of dogs and cats a person can have as long as they aren’t breaking any other code violations like noise, smell, confinement rules, etc.
So compared to unlimited dogs or cats, having a few chicken hens doesn’t seem to hurt anyone. They are not noisy -the neighbors’ dogs are much noisier, they aren’t dirty -you can just spray the poop right off and it becomes fertilizer unlike dog poop, they don’t pose a threat to public safety as they can’t bite or kill anyone as dogs can. And each of these possibilities would already be covered by existing codes as they are for dogs and other pets.
Keeping chickens as pets has the additional benefit of food production and food security. I can’t see why anyone would think that having four backyard chickens is detrimental to society. If you support local food, environmental and economic sustainability, food security, healthy lifestyles and responsible pet ownership, please support us in being allowed to live in Greeley with our chickens.
We are going to fight this and we will need your help. If you are in the Greeley or northern Colorado area, we will be meeting next Thursday, August 20, 2009 at Ramseier Farm Park, 6:30pm to talk strategy. Please come if you can.
