Commissioner Helen Goreham
It takes two commissioners to bring forward a request for a code change. Before Monday, Southeast Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott was the only one on record willing to consider the need to change the code dealing with chickens.
But Goreham told the Journal on Monday she would join Ott in the request.
“We’re awaiting research by Community Development on proposals for possible changes, but it doesn’t mean we’re supportive of it until we see that material,” Goreham said.
Rob Hosack, the county’s community development director, said the commission considers code changes in January.
“Ultimately it would end up being in a package that would be presented for public discussion at the very beginning of January with public hearings in January and February,” Hosack said.
Northeast Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said last week she opposes a change to the existing code, which requires two acres to have chickens.
“What’s appropriate in some areas is not necessarily appropriate in other areas,” Birrell said. “If you look at my district where you have subdivisions with any density at all and half acre lots you have people who don’t want chickens and the issues that come with that. You hear a lot of issues from complaints from noise to odor, nuisance, whatever. I don’t support changing the code.”
Southwest Cobb Commissioner Woody Thompson, who will be replaced by Commissioner-elect Lisa Cupid in January, agrees with Birrell.
“If you’ve ever seen someone putting chicken litter on their yard to get a quick start on their grass and it rains on it, it will run you out of town,” Thompson said.
Lee is not supportive of changing the code either.
“Chickens are not domestic animals as I define them, and I have no interest in having that issue grow as it relates to people’s backyards and neighborhoods,” Lee said.
Cupid said she hasn’t made up her mind.
“Driving through my district, I see them in front yards all the time,” Cupid said.
Moreover, the chickens she sees do not live on lots that are two acres or larger, she said.
“I’d have to do more research to know what the opposing arguments are, because I’ve mostly heard from people for it in the district, not from persons that are against it,” Cupid said. “I personally don’t have anything against it, but then again my neighbor doesn’t have any.”
East Cobb plumber Joseph Pond formed the Backyard Chickens Alliance after he was cited by the county’s code enforcement department last year for keeping a dozen hens on his half acre property.
Pond said he was turned in by his neighbor, Carole Kell, mother of Cobb Superior Court Judge Tain Kell.
“Carole Kell lives directly behind me,” Pond said. “She told me that she called or emailed JoAnn Birell to inquire about the legality of my chickens even though she knew they were illegal. She told me that they were going to ruin her property value.”
Pond said although he has a six foot privacy fence around his backyard, Kell lives on a hill and can therefore see over it.
Kell disputes Pond’s allegation that she turned him in.
“You know, that was so bandied back and forth in the press when it all came up,” Kell said. “I will just say that he is mistaken, and he doesn’t believe that, but he is.”
At the same time, Kell believes the code should remain the way it is.
“I don’t think chickens are needed in an urban area when houses are in such close proximity,” she said. “I think that the two-acre allowance or prohibition is a good one. … There needs to be more space for them.”
Pond said he tried to obtain a variance from the county.
“They would not issue me a variance,” he said. “I tried to take the county to court and my paperwork wasn’t filed 100 percent properly, so in November I gave my chickens away.”
Hearing that Goreham had joined Ott in wanting to explore the need for a code amendment, Pond said he was “ecstatic.”
Pond said the number of chickens an individual keeps for pets and egg production does not produce an odor that would disturb nearby neighbors. And as for noise, it’s only roosters that crow loudly, not hens, he said.
Pond said the goal of his group is to have poultry taken out of the same designation as livestock and wild, exotic animals.
“I would like to see poultry treated under the same rules as pets,” he said. “I have been working very hard, very diligently for well over a year now towards this goal. It’s like I told the commissioners in the past: Backyard chickens aren’t for everyone, but everyone should have the right to own backyard chickens.”
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Raising chickens is a conscientious choice to NOT support the horrendous poultry factories that treat chickens inhumanely and pump them full of hormones and antibiotics.
I would be proud to live in a county that supports it's citizen's rights to make this world a better place to live it.
I hope they do change the ordinance. It is ridiculous that people can have a yard full of dogs or cats but not chickens. Just like anything else, the conscienciousness of the owner is what determines the nuisance level.
I expect that the more people understand how much of an ecological friend these fine-feathered beasts are they will want more of them. The eggs bring people together as neighbors taste the higher level of food quality. This has been the case in my community. The waste can produce an odor when composting, but the quality and benefit to gardening is significant. It’s not as pungent as Commissioner Thompson makes it out to be. Growing and sharing local food reduces oil consumption through reduced trips to the store and has the potential to increase pleasant local social interaction. Local social interaction is greatly missing in many of our neighborhoods and the source of allot of insanity. Added to those benefits is a cost-neutral source of protein that provides children with a healthy understanding of what it takes to provide good food.
Raising chickens also gives a healthy sense of social responsibility and increases our practice of recapturing a producer economy on an intimate neighbor level. Our communities need this kind of thinking to move us out of our economic ‘do-it-for-me’ grogginess. VOTE for Intelligent Responsible Living! Vote CHICKEN on less than 2 Acres.
We are after all the HOME of the BIG Chicken =) Let's take that to the next level.
Please - before you throw eggs at the idea - the 5th Annual Urban Coop Tour is taking place the first weekend in October in Atlanta. People have been raising small backyard flocks there for years and there are 13 coops to tour spread out over some lovely neighborhoods.
Chairman Lee may not consider them domestic animals, but the rest of the free world does! I would like to find out more information on the issues from complaints about noise, odor, and nuisances from Commissioner Birrell. There are specific existing ordinances concerning those things that people use every day when it comes to barking dogs, irresponsible pet owners, leaf blowers, garbage trucks, and so on. Local HOAs and their covenants will take care of those areas where poultry is not appropriate.
We need decisions based on facts, not prejudices and personal opinions.
Responsible people take care of their homes, their property, and their pets. Irresponsible people devalue homes and neighborhoods by not taking care of their homes and properties. It is just that simple~
The claim that chickens lower property value is without merit.
The cheapo "houses" rotting away in subdivisions that are populated, for now, with microwave dinner eating Kroger shoppers are what devalue an area!!
Cobb is viewed in a positive light only for the Big Chicken Cobb is known for plenty of negatives, and they ALL live in "subdivisions"!!
Ban subdivisions and bring on the chickens!
- Noisy or loose dogs
- Lots of renters
- Folks who don't maintain their property (mostly front yards, since many backyards are private)
- Other nearby detractors (grungy strip malls, vacant businesses, etc.)
Things that don't devalue neighborhoods:
- Well kept front yards
- Well maintained houses (painted, clean gutters, etc.)
- Well kept backyard gardens, even those with chickens, which can play an integral part of the ecosystem by eating bugs and providing compost (composted manure doesn't smell, btw)
Responsible stewardship should be allowed! Poor management (noise complaints, loose animals) will still be a violation of code.
What many people don't realize is that a well-kept small number of hens are not seen or heard much. Many lots in Cobb, including my own, are almost 1 acre, in wooded neighborhoods or ones with large, private backyards. 3 or 4 hens would never be a nuisance to neighbors because they are similarly shielded by trees and large spaces.
However, my neighbor across the street (a renter) let their dog run loose (I called animal control - you can do the same for any other noisy animals, including roosters) and the one down the road has a little yapper that terrorizes every passerby.
Why will you protect their right to raise as many barking dogs as they can, but not my right to keep to myself and raise a few small, quiet, productive animals that will never leave my private backyard?
False on Chickens: You almost assuredly have sold a home that had chickens nearby, and even likely right next door, and didn't even know it. And as evidenced by your observing that chickens weren't a problem AT ALL when ya drove through Atlanta, the sky doesn't fall when people keep 8 pound birds . . . . duh.
There goes the Hood: If you wouldn't move into a subdivision because a resident had chickens . . .well . . .you would likely never move into any neighborhood that didn't have an anal-retentive HOA.
I have over 70 chickens in a residential neighborhood, on 5/8 of an acre . . . .and the neighbors have no problem with'em.
Further, this should actually be a non issue, period. "Liberty" and all that. Sadly, most "chicken activists" are all too willing to sell out their liberty and play along with ridiculous "4 hen limits" and such.
Inadvertently, they actually help surrender our Constitution to governmental big-brotherism by taking the easy way out. It's my right to keep a chicken on my property if I want to, or 4 or 10, or 100 for that matter, if I can do so without unduly infringing on the right of quiet enjoyment and other rights of others (and I CAN do that)
The only real chicken-specific legislation we need is . . .well . . .none. Government, get off my lawn. Chicken Whisperer . . .you are leading folks down the wrong path, dude. You fight . . .well . . .like a girl. Easy to rack up the "wins" when ya set the bar so very, VERY low. Joseph Pond: You're even weaker.
Check.
Step two: ?
Step three: PROFIT
I say bring on the chickens to improve our economy.
The 1% living on our hilltops will be motivated (by an undesired awareness of other people) to become 0.5% and they will move to an affluent part of the country (this ain't one no matter what YOU think!!) which of course benefits us all via trickle down job creation.
Help me, Obi Chick Enobi, you are our only hope!