Ok gang! You asked for an update, so here it is.
I ( and a handful of influential friends) spoke face to face with The City Planner; David de la Torre and the Planning Administrator Jeff Kurtz yesterday.
They were very kind in rehashing the events of May's vote against Chickens In Chandler. They shared with us that although Mr de la Torre did all that he could do to win the city council over, and the vote was close 4/3 against. The reason that this request was defeated was because of the lack of turnout for chickens, the lack of emails for chickens, and the lack of an organized body for chickens.
The ones who came out, and wrote letters, and organized themselves were the HOAs. I know that it does not make sense that the HOAs were even counted in this, but they are residents of the city too.
We were told that the City Council is not interested in bringing this up at this time. They believe that it will just be a repeat of May's performance.
They did encourage us though; as they are for chickens themselves. They asked us to organize ourselves, flood the offices of the Mayor, and the city council with hundreds of emails. You do not have to be a Chandler resident, but you do not have to tell them where you live either. I hate politics, but I can play the game too, just like anyone else who wants something changed.
They also told us that elections are coming up in March and November of next year. If you are a resident, get involved. Find out who the candidates are and write them emails. Let us make this a campaign issue.
If this is inappropriate for this group, I would like for the administrator to contact me off list. Otherwise, I can be counted on to alert the people who are interested in the Chandler fight as things progress. We have a Gilbert committee leader in our group. If you contact me I can get his information to you.
We are currently looking for a committee leader for both Phoenix and Glendale. Someone who is willing to keep us up to date on city codes and contact the cities for us.
Replies
Caught the cold going around work.... as much as I wanted to be there and learn about the opposition and how to over whelm the council... you don't want me there passing this viral nightmare. Sorry..... please post what happened and the next meeting.
Angie,
We did not go to Chandler on Thursday night after all. Please read the post that starts with Ok Gang! This is what you can do for now. Please go to the Chandler city website and find the email addresses of the mayor and the City Councilors. Write a letter to each one separately telling them why you feel that the non HOA homes in Chandler should regain the right to raise chickens in their backyards. You do not have to tell them where you are from. They just need lots and lots of emails before they will be willing to re-visit this topic.
Here is a copy one our group sent out to her friends.
I am earnestly trying to get people to support our efforts to change the law in Chandler, and then other cities, to allow residents to have chickens and rabbits.
Even if you are not a Chandler resident, would you please send an email to the mayor and each councilman requesting they allow Chandler residents to have chickens. You can type just one email and then copy it to each person below. This is greatly appreciated.
Mayor Tibshraeny: jay.tibshraeny@chandleraz.gov
Vice Mayor Sellers: jack.sellers@chandleraz.gov
Council members: trinity.donovan@chandleraz.gov
nora.ellen@chandleraz.gov
kevin.hartke@chandleraz.gov
rick.heumann@chandleraz.gov
jeff.weninger@chandleraz.gov
Your email should be a few to several sentences expressing why allowing Chandler residents to have chickens and rabbits is such a good idea. Please use your own words so we are not all sending the same email.
examples:
allows you to have fresh eggs from chickens who are fed what you want,
teaches children responsibility,
they make less noise than dogs,
they are great pets,
they would be kept in back yards not creating a nuisance like roaming cats,
chickens eat scorpions and other bugs,
they eat food scraps,
their poop is good for fertilizing our gardens,
Americans have the right to be self sufficient,
Thank you for your help in this endeavor.
Oh, and please forward this onto 10 other people and ask them to forward it to 10 others. We CAN make a difference.
I'm on it!!! Will post my letter when I have it done. I do have a couple of email accounts and will happily send from each with a variation of tone/info to each member along with a reminder about my 18 year Chandler voting record. I'm thinking of including website links to GMO testing animals (UTube) and the GMO warning websites and perhaps one about historical freedom which they clearly have forgotten. Keep up the good fight!!!
Thank you for ALL you do Donna!!
Angie,
You are awesome!
Thank you for this.
I was at the meeting in May. I'm a little surprised that they cited a lack of turn out on the "for chickens" team. It felt like it was about 50/50 as far as attendance. But emails I cannot attest to. I suppose an organized body would be very beneficial and could probably better dispel some of the crazy arguments that were brought up by the "con chicken" folks.
I'm glad you posted this because I was feeling very defeated. I was also very much considering going rogue. The way Chandler's policy is written now, if you have written consent from neighbors a certain feet around you, it is ok. I'm planning on knocking on some doors and collecting signatures. That way I will be with in the law, but still feel like I'm making a statement. I've been waiting years for Chandler to come around and the out come last May was actually very surprising to me.
I will keep emailing and will for sure try to part of a more organized group to bring back yard chickens to Chandler.
Sarah, thank you for your response, and for your participation in May. I am hoping that someone from May kept the contact list. Renu (who was the leader of that round) has not been available to get the contact list from. In an effort to be helpful, I have been defending a friend in Chandler that did go rogue with chickens and was turned in. So I talked to a Chandler City inspector and asked him to explain the city code to me. In order to have chickens in Chandler, you must live on what is called an Agrarian lot. It must be at least 33,000 square feet. Anything less than that falls under zoning code number 38. It says that you may have dogs or cats and that is all. Only dogs and cats. If you do live on an agrarian lot, you must keep your coops so many feet away from your neighbor's property line. That is where the signature comes in to play. Many lots are too narrow to comply with that minimum feet requirement. In that case, you can get your neighbors signature in order to do away with that part of it. Believe me we are looking for every loophole that we can find and are just not finding any.
As far as joining an organized group, please consider joining the Backyard Farmers United Facebook page. That is where hundreds of people are gathering to organize and communicate with each other. We took on Gilbert together. This request will go in front of the Planning Commission on Feb 5th. We are asking people to come to that meeting to encourage the planning commission to vote to put the request in front of the City Council in March.
While we are waiting for this to happen we are starting again with Chandler. What city is next? Please come and join us to find out how we can maximize our efforts.