Sunday, June 13, 2010

Vancouver BC OKs 4 backyard hens, no roosters/ducks/turkeys -- and no charge

Santa brought a backyard chicken coop for Chri...Image by Chris Breikss via Flickr

Salem officials would think they had died and gone to heaven if Salem was considered anywhere near as desirable as Vancouver, B.C.

So it's worth noting that this world-class cosmopolitan city has legalized four backyard hens for residents, at no charge.
A maximum of four hens, which should at least be four months old, are permitted per coop. Other poultry — roosters, ducks, turkeys or pheasants — remain banned, and the hens will not allowed in front yards or highrise apartment balconies.

Under the guidelines, the backyard enclosure must be roofed and cannot exceed nine square metres in area and three metres in height.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Question: Why do the C.I.T.Y. folks seem to be OK with the plan to require a $50 license to have chickens in Salem, as a way to fund an inspection regime? Won't this cut out a lot of low income families who don't have $50 to spend on a chicken permit. And why do we need inspections anyway? Do they do this in Portland, Corvallis and Eugene? Just wondering ...

Barbara (C.I.T.Y. Founder) said...

No other city in Oregon requires inspections but in Bend the permit is $100 and in Gresham it cost $50 for a 2-year permit. Although we believe the $50 fee is too high and inspections are not needed, compromise was necessary in order to get enough votes to pass a chicken-keeping ordinance in Salem. This reflects months of work and negotiations. At one point the ordinance would have only allowed 3 hens on city lots larger than 10,000 sq ft! We figured it's easier to put up with inspections and pay $50 (for a while) than it is to change the size of our property. Fund-raising events will provide assistance for those who need help paying the fee or building the coop. Later, after we can prove these regs were, in fact, not needed, we will ask that they be removed.