I can only speak of Danby, but in this town, agriculture, including keeping animals, is specifically permitted in all residential zones. Danby clings to its agrarian roots, and the bulk of the agricultural activity in the town is hobby farming. I have neighbors who keep ducks. Four others keep chickens. Fortunately, the one neighbor with the rooster is enough apart to not be too disturbing, but that could become an issue real quick if keeping roosters became more widespread. For any of you considering keeping small animals where they are allowed, I urge you to be sensitive to your neighbors. Keeping animals responsibly is the best way to expand support for having animals at all, and causing problems for your neighbors the best way to curtail a practice that we should be promoting.
"Off-site impacts" is the general term for what we should be careful about. Air pollution and noise are big ones. I disagree with George about chicken manure. I think swine manure is worse. Neither is a problem, however, if managed with a bedding system to absorb ammonia and odors. This is also the best way to capture and stabilize the nutrients in the manure. Joel At 05:19 AM 12/16/08 -0800, you wrote: >I recommend that everybody interested in raising small livestock and >poultry should check their local zoning regulations, because the ban on >such activity tends to be applied across the board in suburban-type zoning >districts and developments, including those covering much of Tompkins County. > >I suspect it's not permitted anywhere in the Town of Ithaca unless you are >located in areas zoned CD-Conservation or AG-Agricultural. > >Even if the zoning regulations do not explicitly ban such uses of the >property, do not assume you can still do it. Many municipal zoning >regulations in New York state, are written in a manner that if a use is >not listed as a permitted use within a particular zoning district, it is >prohibited within that zoning district. > >I have have no problems with my neighbors here in Ithaca having >poultry. I'm in the one percent of the population that has no problem >being awaken up at the crack of dawn by chickens and ducks next door. The >other 99 percent of the neighborhood however probably prefers to sleep >in. Moreover no manure smells as bad as chicken manure. > >So I don't hold out much hope for chickens and ducks being let back into >Ithaca or the surrounding suburbs. > >George Frantz > > > >--- On Mon, 12/15/08, Simon St.Laurent <[email protected]> wrote: > >From: Simon St.Laurent <[email protected]> >Subject: [SustainableTompkins] New TCLocal article: Local and Urban Small >Livestock and Poultry >To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" ><[email protected]> >Date: Monday, December 15, 2008, 5:01 PM > >Humans have lived with animals for thousands of years, but over the past >few decades the relationship has changed dramatically in this country. >Domestic animals, apart from pets, are now largely concentrated in the >hands of relatively few keepers whose primary incentive is converting >them into cash. Integrated farms where animals are a key component of a >broader cycle have become rare, and the very idea of "farming" now >suggests a large-scale operation. > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ >For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, >please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > >RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: >[email protected] >http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins >Questions about the list? ask [email protected] >free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
