[George Frantz:] | 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.
Good idea! | I suspect it's not permitted anywhere in the Town of Ithaca unless | you are located in areas zoned CD-Conservation or AG-Agricultural. It's also allowed in areas zoned Low Density Residential. | 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. More good advice. | 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. Chickens and ducks don't actually make all that much noise; the problem is roosters. Places like Portland (OR) that allow chickens within city boundaries put a limit on the number (three is typical) and prohibit keeping roosters. As pointed out in the TCLocal article, the manure problem is one aspect of proper maintenance and could be addressed through education and regular municipal inspection. | So I don't hold out much hope for chickens and ducks being let | back into Ithaca or the surrounding suburbs. Unemployment and food shortages (which could start developing within the next couple of years due to a collapse in liquid fuel production) may change the way people feel about this. The Town of Ithaca is in the initial stages of revising its 1993 Comprehensive Plan; this might be a good time to revisit the question. Jon _______________________________________________ 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
