9 years ago
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by Barbara Kilarski
Urban Chickens
Why Am I Doing This?
I have found that I'm not alone in wanting to provide fresh, safe food for my family from my own backyard. This blog is my adventure in getting approval to raise a small flock of hens in my city yard for the benefit of fresh eggs while contributing to a green environment.
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10 years ago
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Keep Chickens
by Barbara Kilarski
The Proposal
We propose that a new bylaw is created within the zoning ordinances of the City of Columbus that allows for backyard urban chickens and specifies the following:
No person shall own more than four (4) hens; roosters are not permitted. No person shall place a coop, pen, housing, or enclosure closer than 25 feet to any neighboring residence. All coops, pens, housing, and enclosures shall be clean and free from insects and disagreeable odors, and hens will be restrained and enclosed at all times on the premises; hens will not be permitted to roam at large. Hens are permitted outside of their coops, pens, housing, and enclosure only when under direct supervision. Feed will be stored in airtight containers impenetrable to rodents and flies. Chickens are to be considered pets and are not to be raised for meat; butchering will not be permissible within city limits.
Being an urban farmer, sustainability activist, and a member of our local food council here in Columbus, Ohio--the Columbus that's a state capital, with a population of over 797,000 (Wikipedia tells me that's 792,000 more than in your town)--I've answered a good number of questions about the complicated regulations on keeping chickens here. You can imagine my confusion, then, when I looked at a site called "Columbus chickens" and read "keeping chickens in Columbus was TURNED DOWN."
ReplyDeleteI know there's a city in Georgia called Columbus, as well as many small towns across the country, so I studied your site carefully to try to figure out which Columbus you were talking about. Nothing in the title, nothing in the sidebar, no apparent mention that you're in Wisconsin. You do mention Mad City, but it's right along with Seattle and Duluth. It was only by going back to your very first post and hovering over the highlighted word "Columbus" that I saw you were linking to the website for the city of Columbus, Wisconsin.
This hurts both our interests. You no doubt want to inform people in your community about developments there, but it's not immediately apparent to anyone that this site is, in fact, about Columbus, WI, so people in your area would really have to dig through this site to learn whether or not what they're reading pertains to them. I'm trying to encourage a movement here in Columbus, OH, to get more people to start raising chickens. My hope is that as more people do so, more pressure will be brought on our local officials to loosen up the laws even further. That's not as likely to happen, though, if interested Ohioans go to the internet, search "Columbus Chickens," and read on your site that keeping chickens isn't allowed.
For the sake of urban chicken fans in both our cities, please consider making some sort of effort to clearly distinguish which Columbus you're talking about. And best of luck getting your local officials to see the light! If you're interested, I could send you a link to a multi-page proposal written by someone in a suburb of Cincinnati that persuaded the city council to move from being unanimously against chickens to being unanimously in favor of them. It hits on all the common objections and backs up its assertions with data regarding real estate values, environmental impact, etc.
My apologies for the confusion....this is somewhat of an underground chicken movement until we can move forward and organize.
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