Bit by bit, I think we are swaying City Council. I attended Sally Mounier's Town Hall meeting last Tuesday evening to hear from At Large members. They spoke about the budget surplus, education, business incentives, and - chickens! I was glad to hear that the objections about chickens are the usual - don't bother the neighbors, noise, etc. There were concerns that we need to have a plan for 1) how to include the neighbors in the process to assure that they approve (or don't hate) the idea of someone having chickens, and 2) protecting hens in winter. They wondered how we would get coops approved by zoning people, and wanted information from other municipalities like Denver and Longmont to hear what challenges they have had or not had as far as infrastructure and costs. They also spoke about how the zoning officers are spread thin, so I wonder if we might use existing positions like animal care or the Dumb friends' League, or even just responsible community members to make sure that hens are cared for appropriately.
So our next step is to educate and inform. You can use the Q and A form I created, emailing them and then calling to follow up, or you can speak at a City Council meeting. Use your three minutes (be sure to sign up to speak before the meeting) to express your support of the idea and let them know you understand their concerns, but here are the facts about predators, noise, smell, and hardiness of hens (they are, by the way, okay down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point you can put a heat lamp, coop heater, or even those breakable pocket hand warmers into the coop to keep them warm). Invite the City Council members to attend Denver's coop tour on September 21st.
We also have an agenda to bring up at the September 16th meeting (Crawford Community Center, 1600 Florence, 6 pm): What do we want to do about enlisting the cooperation of neighbors? How do we want to keep chicken owners accountable? How can we do this without straining city resources? What can we learn from other cities?
Our plan as it stands now is to continue to call, email, and speak to inform and ask for support. We will continue to get petitions signed. After the election in November, we will see where we stand with the new council, and bring it up for vote once we have 6 members willing to vote yes to changing the ordinance. So far, PK Kaiser (running for At Large), Sally Mounier, Renie Peterson, and Bob LeGare are for chickens. Matt Cook, Brad Pierce, and Barb Cleland are for it if we get the details figured out. We need six votes.
By the way, we were complemented on our political action. A long time politically active woman told me she was impressed with how active we are. Keep it up!
