Backyard Chickens on agenda at AAC Oct 6 meeting

On TUESDAY OCT 6TH at 3:30 pm, the Agriculture Advisory Committee is meeting and this issue is on their agenda. Currently, people living on land of less than 1 acre are not allowed to raise poultry, according to our local by-laws. However, residents of cities such as Victoria, New York, Seattle, Burnaby, Richmond, and Chicago have been allowed to raise hens for eggs for a number of years, on lots of significantly less area.

Recently (March 2009), the Vancouver City Council approved of a change to their bylaws and will be allowing backyard hens once the guidelines are set around the conditions that must be met. This issue was recently brought to our attention as a local family in Elphinstone living on 3/4 of an acre was forced to remove their 4 hens from the property within 9 days of receiving a letter from a bylaw officer. Clearly there are many folks in our community who are unknowingly breaking this bylaw and are raising hens illegally on their property - as anyone on R1 land (< 1 acre) is not permitted to produce eggs for their family.

As citizens of the Sunshine Coast, many of us are very dedicated to principles of sustainable living and care a great deal about moving towards greater local food security. We have a strong history of local food and egg production, which is being undermined by this restrictive and outdated bylaw. I encourage you to express your opinion to our Agriculture Advisory Committee so that they can make a recommendation to the SCRD board that represents the views and vision of our community.

PLEASE SEND A SHORT STATEMENT TO: Diane.Corbett@scrd.ca In the subject line, write: AAC Oct 6th meeting, re: backyard chickens.

Also, PLEASE WRITE TO YOUR AREA REPRESENTATIVE so that they get a sense of what their constituents want! Area B: Garry Nohr - glnohr@dccnet.com Area D: Donna Shugar - donna_shugar@hotmail.com Area E: Lorne Lewis - l_lewis@sunshine.net Area F: Lee Turnbull - leeturnbull@dccnet.com

For more information on backyard chickens:
In Vancouver: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/proje...
Urban chickens workshops through Farm Folk City Folk and the Environmental Youth Alliance: http://www.chickensinvancouver.com/2009/07/03/vancouver-urban-chicken-wo...

In the news (CBC, Vancouver Sun): http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/02/27/bc-chickens.h... http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/03/06/bc-vancouver-... http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vancouver+latest+municipality+allow+urb...

In New York: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anf22foqSt4&feature=related

Organization promoting urban chickens: http://urbanchickens.org/