Letter: South Portlanders shouldn't have to cross road to keep chickens (Printed June 23, 2007)
Posted by Sentry Editor at 6/28/2007 1:26 PM 
Categories: Zoning, Opinion, So Po News, Letters to the editor, Environment, Trash
Categories: Zoning, Opinion, So Po News, Letters to the editor, Environment, Trash
Editor:
As we become more aware of the need to keep our planet– and our families– healthier, more and more people are making small changes in their lifestyles. It could be trying to eat fresher, healthier, locally-grown foods (healthy for the body, the local economy, and the environment by not trucking food thousands of miles); it could be getting outside more to de-stress and reconnect with nature, to slow down a little from our busy modern lives; it could be trying to reuse and recycle as much as possible.
My family grows vegetables in a small backyard organic garden. It gives us a lot of pleasure to pick our dinner veggies each night, and it’s a fantastic lesson for children to see where food comes from: not always from the supermarket wrapped in plastic! We would love to be able to walk out into the backyard to get our breakfast, too, in the form of fresh organic eggs from our backyard hens. The hens would eat garden scraps and, in return, give us fresh eggs and fantastic compost for the garden.
Towns and cities all over America have recognized the value – to the community, neighborhoods, the environment, children, and families– of relaxing their zoning laws to allow a few carefully-tended, PET backyard hens. In urban and suburban areas, backyard hens are kept as pets, not as farm animals. Hens are welcomed in upscale neighborhoods nationwide (including Cape Elizabeth), where they reside in stylish backyard henhouses and are kept as clean as any other pet. A rural farmer might clean his chicken coop once a year but backyard coops are often cleaned daily! Hens (no crowing roosters, of course!!) kept as pets don’t smell and when hand-raised from chicks they can be affectionate pets. Suburban chickens are kept enclosed in pretty garden sheds; they don’t wander freely in the neighborhood. In fact, backyard chickens cause a lot less of a nuisance, smell and noise than many pet dogs.
We’re hoping that the city of South Portland will join communities all over America in allowing backyard hens. The next City Council Workshop on this issue is Monday, June 25th. Councilors Hughes, Morgan, and Baxter support amending the zoning ordinance to allow a few backyard hens.
We’ve heard from many, many South Portland families who also support this, and feel that –far from harming property values as some councilors fear– this will make South Portland an even more pleasant place to live. More information at www.SoPoChickens.org.
Stacey, Olivia, and Neil Collins
South Portland
As we become more aware of the need to keep our planet– and our families– healthier, more and more people are making small changes in their lifestyles. It could be trying to eat fresher, healthier, locally-grown foods (healthy for the body, the local economy, and the environment by not trucking food thousands of miles); it could be getting outside more to de-stress and reconnect with nature, to slow down a little from our busy modern lives; it could be trying to reuse and recycle as much as possible.
My family grows vegetables in a small backyard organic garden. It gives us a lot of pleasure to pick our dinner veggies each night, and it’s a fantastic lesson for children to see where food comes from: not always from the supermarket wrapped in plastic! We would love to be able to walk out into the backyard to get our breakfast, too, in the form of fresh organic eggs from our backyard hens. The hens would eat garden scraps and, in return, give us fresh eggs and fantastic compost for the garden.
Towns and cities all over America have recognized the value – to the community, neighborhoods, the environment, children, and families– of relaxing their zoning laws to allow a few carefully-tended, PET backyard hens. In urban and suburban areas, backyard hens are kept as pets, not as farm animals. Hens are welcomed in upscale neighborhoods nationwide (including Cape Elizabeth), where they reside in stylish backyard henhouses and are kept as clean as any other pet. A rural farmer might clean his chicken coop once a year but backyard coops are often cleaned daily! Hens (no crowing roosters, of course!!) kept as pets don’t smell and when hand-raised from chicks they can be affectionate pets. Suburban chickens are kept enclosed in pretty garden sheds; they don’t wander freely in the neighborhood. In fact, backyard chickens cause a lot less of a nuisance, smell and noise than many pet dogs.
We’re hoping that the city of South Portland will join communities all over America in allowing backyard hens. The next City Council Workshop on this issue is Monday, June 25th. Councilors Hughes, Morgan, and Baxter support amending the zoning ordinance to allow a few backyard hens.
We’ve heard from many, many South Portland families who also support this, and feel that –far from harming property values as some councilors fear– this will make South Portland an even more pleasant place to live. More information at www.SoPoChickens.org.
Stacey, Olivia, and Neil Collins
South Portland
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