Chicken Vote On The Agenda

Staff has completed their report of legalizing chickens in the town and it will be on next Thursday’s council agenda (April 19th). I encourage you all to read the report, pass it along to your friends, and then contact the council members (council@townofcary.org) and let them know what you think of the recommendation.

Council Agenda: http://bit.ly/HGJuNz
Staff Report: http://bit.ly/IlXUA9

• read more

Cary Takes First Positive Step Toward Chickens

Tonight was the third time the issue to legalize chickens went before the town council. The first time was 4-3 against having staff look in to it. The second was a vote against forming an Issue Advisory Group, after being the first to go through the “CIRC” committee. Coincidentally, tonight’s council meeting dissolved CIRC because it had no purpose, which was discovered during the no vote against the IAG. Unlike the past two votes, this time it was 5-2 in favor of having staff write up guidelines.

• read more

Chickens on the Council Agenda

This may be the year of the chicken in Cary, NC. Don Frantz, a town council member who was very outspoken against legalizing chickens has reevaluated his position. He still does not want chickens, but he no longer believes that others should be denied this freedom. Details can be found on his blog post, Spring Chickens.

• read more

Cary Voter Forum 2011

The video recordings of the Cary Community Candidate Forum have been posted to the town’s website. Not surprisingly, the issue of legalizing chickens was one of the questions asked of the candidates. I’ve watched the videos and found where the question is asked in each.

I need to make a few follow up questions based upon the answers some of the candidates provided. They seem to not match up with responses they gave during previous correspondences.

• read more

2011 Candidate Update

We’ve spoken with several more candidates, but we are still awaiting responses from a few more. Here’s what we’ve found out so far.

Mayoral: Currently held by Harold Weinbrecht (still opposed to chickens). His opponent is Michelle Muir. Mike and I met with her, and she is supportive of legalizing chickens.

District B: Currently Don Frantz, who was opposed, but he now SUPPORTS legalizing hens in residential areas! I spoke with him and he is very much behind this now! Amazing. He wants a rule regarding appearance, nothing super strict but ensuring people can’t use old washing machines as coops. Opponent is Jeffrey Foxx also supports them, but he doesn’t seem to really be running much of a campaign.

District D: Currently Gale Adcock, who was supportive of legalizing chickens. Opponent is Don Hyatt (still waiting for a reply)

At Large: Zeke Bridges is very supportive also! His main caveat is he wants to make sure HOAs can ban them, which I’m pretty sure was always the case anyways, but otherwise he’s on board. Lori Bush is a maybe—there is an exchange on her facebook wall here that you can read. She supports hiving an issue advisory group or staff ‘research further’ because there are still ‘unanswered questions’.

The Candidate Town forum on September 14th is still accepting questions until September 7th. The website is here http://ncvotered.com/cary/

Also, someone pointed out to me that we only need FOUR supportive people on council to legalize hens.

• read more

A Brief Status Update

It has been several years since my wife and I first approached the council with what we thought was a simple request. Fast forward to today and a few of the council members have shown that no facts or amount of public feedback in support of legalizing chickens will change their minds. I’ve recently heard that the town is still frequently asked about about the issue and those inquiries may still outpace feedback on the budget.

The next step for legalizing chickens appears to be using the 2011 election to chance the composition of the council. The following council members have blocked our efforts from moving this forward.

• read more

Council Presentation Resources

Thursday at 6:30pm, Alissa will make a presentation to the Cary Town Council in the hopes of forming an Issue Advisory Group (IAG) that will work with the town to provide recommendations to council at a later date. Below are links to the presentation and information packets given to each member of council.

• cary_chickens_CIRC_final2.ppt
• Information packet given to Cary Council members
• Official cost estimate computed by Town of Cary staff
• Issue Advisory Group Budget Question

Related Information:

• Staff Report – Chicken Advisory Group
• Policy Statement 157

• read more

Chicken campaign clucks on in Cary

Jordan Cooke, Staff Writer for Cary News, has published a story about chickens. He interviewed representatives from the town, CaryChickens and an NCSU poultry specialist.

A Cary woman isn’t giving up on drawn-out efforts to grow something illegal in her backyard: chickens.

“It’s about reducing our environmental impact,” said Alissa Manfre, co-founder of grass roots group Cary Chickens, who says she wants to own chickens for their ability to control pests and provide fertilizer for their vegetable garden.

Full story

• read more

Issue Advisory Group Presentation

The presentation for our request to form an Issue Advisory Group is this Thursday, August 13th, at the Town Council meeting which starts at 6:30 pm in the Council Chambers at 316 N. Academy Street. We are early on the agenda (http://www.townofcary.org/agenda/agenda.htm). The presentation will hopefully start around 6:45. The staff, CIRC, and Cary chickens presentations should last 20-25 minutes, and then Town Council will debate and vote on whether or not we may form a Town-Sanctioned Issue Advisory Group.

• read more