A Lunenburg woman is frustrated she is not permitted to raise chickens on her property.
Menna Riley hoped to teach her children about the value of raising animals and locally sourcing your food
She asked her councillor and was informed that to have the birds she would have to apply to change the town’s bylaws.
Riley says the work involved is prohibitive.
“We don’t have that kind of time to be approaching council and going over and over and collecting all these signatures of our neighbours.”
Riley says she would also have to place ads at her expense and ultimately decided they couldn’t spend the time to make it happen.
She feels that is too much red tape.
“The houses aren’t that close together. We have a couple of acres of property so it’s not like we have this tiny little lot. We figured, oh this shouldn’t be a big deal, and it really was.”
Riley says she understands why large livestock wouldn’t be allowed in town.
But she feels the laws are outdated when it comes to chickens.
However, Mayor Rachel Bailey says the planning does allow chickens in rural areas of Lunenburg, but not in Old Town.
But they’re not against the idea.
“Nobody’s said that they wouldn’t want chickens to my knowledge. It’s not come up. It’s, right now, just not permitted in the documents that we have, in the planning documents that we have.”
Bailey says the Municipal Planning Strategy was developed in 1996 before there was a push towards urban chickens.
“Having chickens in a residential area probably was not conceived of when the documents were made. So it’s not a permitted use.”
She says the planning strategy is under review now and raising chickens will be considered as part of that process.
