Despite a staff report recommending no further action, the
urban chicken debate in Halifax may just be getting underway.
Last year, three west end hens were effectively evicted by HRM’s
bylaw enforcement office after a complaint against them was lodged by
an area neighbour. The eviction prompted protests from many would-be
backyard chicken owners and supporters, with over 1,000 signatures on a
petition prompting Peninsula Community Council to take notice and ask
for staff input on the matter. After almost exactly a year, a report
came back Monday with a recommendation to drop the issue due to a lack
of any further backyard chicken incidents in HRM.
The four Peninsula councillors voted to table the report in order to
seek out further community involvement on the issue before deciding
what to do. “I had a fairly good number of people say they were
disappointed with the recommendation,” said councillor Jennifer Watts,
who pitched the idea of further community consultation. Watts will now
take the next month to consult community groups and individuals
interested in backyard chickens.
“She wants to be deliberate about it; she wants to be inclusive
about it, and that’s really important,” says Louise Hanavan, former
owner of the three evicted west end hens. “That was something that was
lacking originally.”
“When I had chickens and got that letter from the city,” recounts
Hanavan, “there was a lack of community involvement in terms of what’s
OK in our neighbourhood and what’s not OK in our neighbourhood. I think
building that into whatever solution comes out is important.”
Sam Austin, who attended the meeting, supports the idea of allowing
backyard chickens in Halifax. “It’s not as obscure as the report made
it out to be,” says Austin. “A lot of places in North America allow
backyard chickens, including Chicago, New York, Vancouver…big cities!
This isn’t something going on in just rural municipalities.”
HRM’s staff report mentions three Canadian cities that currently
allow backyard chickens: Victoria, Vancouver and Niagara Falls. The
regulations cover number and type of birds (roosters are generally out
of the question due to noise issues), size of yards and setbacks from
neighbouring property lines.
According to John Van Gurp, an urban-poultry supporter who
administered an online petition in support of the west end hens last
year, banning backyard chickens is a matter of over-regulating HRM
citizens. “I’m a taxpayer; I’m a property owner. I want to do this
harmless hobby in my backyard, on my private property,” says Van Gurp.
“HRM shouldn’t be able to come and shut it down on the basis of one
complaint that might be based on groundless fears. We’re not talking
goats, horses and sheep here. It’s a couple birds in your backyard.
Give me a break.”
The complaint against Louise Hanavan’s chickens was reported to be
concerning the potential for the chickens and their feed to attract
rats to the area, something that would-be urban chicken raisers say is
not a significant risk relative to other items that attract rats, such
as wild-bird feed. But Hanavan was not informed of the nature of the
complaint by the city.
“It wasn’t until it came out in the media that I found out that
there was a gentleman across the street and a few houses down that had
called the city worried about rats being attracted by the chicken
feed,” say Hanavan. “If the media hadn’t been involved, I wouldn’t have
known who or why.”
Though the staff report advised no further action, it also
recommended that any potential changes to the bylaws governing how HRM
citizens use their backyards is considered by full regional council
rather than local community council. HRM’s bylaws are a mish-mash of
local regulations dating from pre-amalgamation days, but changing a
bylaw can only legally happen at the regional council level, something
which speakers at Monday’s meeting were hoping to avoid. “To me, the
whole point of having community councils is so that you can have a plan
for a small area,” says Austin. “Keeping chickens in Ecum Secum is
different than keeping chickens in the Peninsula. You’re not going to
be able to do a bylaw at the regional level that will apply to all of
them.”
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This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2009.
52 cities in the US and 4 in Canada specifically allow people to keep a few birds. Bylaws are being challenged all over the place. It’s not something new, to keep hens. What happened is that when cities started to put planning structures in place they didn’t recognize long standing activities like this. Then over time people assumed these rights just don’t exist. In some cases prohibitions were formalized in bylaws, etc. HRM’s peninsula land use bylaw is a ridiculous piece of legislation. Anything not specifically permitted is prohibited. What!??? So it looks like the proposal is reasonable, calm and not nearly as weird as opponents might shriek. The Councilors seem to be behind a change so let’s hope that next year we’ll be allowed to have a hen or two in the yard like much of the rest of the world.
I would love to have chickens. I eat a lot of eggs and I have a space in the backyard of my rented house that would be exactly the right size for a chicken coop for two birds. My coop would be well-constructed, clean, and not a bother to the neighbours as far as I can tell. Bring it on!
If your chickens tempt my cat on to your property don’t come clucking to me. Besides, anything Jennifer Watts and John VanBurp are in favor of is generally a bad idea.
I’d do whatever it takes to protect my chickens from your cat.
: ) – reminds me of the hole I had to dig to bury my goldfish. It was inside my neighbour’s cat.
Let people have their chickens already! Good comments re: over-regulation and letting community councils handle this.
Once again, the rural-urban divide in HRM rears its ugly head. And now some councilors will find yet another micro distraction to busy them from tackling the big issues in HRM. Is it that they don’t recognize what the big issues are? Or is it that they don’t have the expertise to handle anything more serious than breaking up a chicken fight?
For once I would like to hear that a councilor stood up and said ‘Where is our RIM?’ and lead an effort to lobby Universities and the Province to open university research for commercialization.
Is it possible that we can use our knowledge base to create industrial opportunities? Get people back to work? Put money in their pockets and food on their tables? Raise the profile of HRM and Nova Scotia? It’s really only a question of priorities, and it doesn’t seem that Halifax will be getting these answers anytime soon given where the priorities of our highest elected municipal body seem to be.
What about a group of councilors leading a vision to have Halifax (like Waterloo) be known for its innovation, not its tire plants? To facilitate an environment that produces world leading technologies in a time when all traditional industries are easily outsourced or relocated.
We’ve been sucking on the teat of the ‘Historic Harbour’ schtik for long enough. The only innovation of mention out of Nova Scotia for the last 20 years has been the ‘Sure Shot’ sugar dispensing machine used at Tim Horton’s. Oh! And then there is that shoelace clip from last year’s Dragon’s Den.
But hey, maybe they’re right. After all, we can’t get on with leading Halifax into the future until this chicken issue is resolved. We can look at the big issues after we figure out what we do with cats, then the chickens, then the rose bush at the corner of street x, and then the 100 thousand other things that some well-meaning-yet-oblivious city councilors are distracting themselves with.
It almost feels like those are the only things they are capable of doing to feel like they are ‘earning their keep’ and ‘serving their constituents’.
I’d love to have a few chickens too. I pay my property taxes and take good care of my property. I have woods backing my property and my neighbours are not that close. Why shouldn’t I be able to have a few chickens? People can have pot-bellied pigs for pets!
I would build a proper coop that fully encages the chickens to protect them from cats and other pretadors.
In todays economic situation, some free eggs could certainly help out a family, not to mention teach our children about where food comes from and responsibility.
Check out http://www.backyardchickens.com to learn all about how to keep chickens.
Don’t come clucking if someone shoots your cat then, Keith. Animals harassing livestock are fair game. Although it’ll probably get pasted by a car first.
I shared this story with some people I know in Masstown outside of Truro….they just shook their head….apparently there is more manure being spread in the HRM than their fields…. I was embarrassed to have this city council.
Council just loves debating chickens,it keeps them away from the important busness,like making secert appointments. God , does the foolishness ever end. What will it be next..no wearing of plaid underwear on friday.Couldn’t you just picture the police enforcing that bylaw.
Oh Please let them be Legal! I am 14 and I live in North-end Halifax and all I have wanted for years is fresh eggs from my won backyard every morning. They eat the compost, make eggs, and if you only had a couple (3 or 4) they make little or no sound! I mean, my dog is much louder than any hen could every be. I don’t, however think roosters should be legal. No one likes being woken up at 4 by that sound. Well, no one except me 😛
I don’t know why a regulated small amout of hens in the right conditions can’t be legal in Halifax backyards! I think it’s crazy.