Correspondence With The City Planner ...

I am sharing an email that I wrote to the City Planner today with you. He continues to be a professional as I work with him to get the city ordinance amended to allow backyard hens.

I need you to show up at the Wednesday, August 12th 3:30 Council meeting. It is located at 1600 Truxton Ave. and Eye Street (south side) to speak in favor of backyard hens. Show up 15 to 10 minutes early, fill out a "public comment card", and share something short and clear about why you believe backyard hens are good for our community. The card asks for your name, address, phone number, and subject that you want to address. The card also states at the bottom that you only need to provide your name and subject matter. (Do not share your address or phone number.) Write "support for backyard hens" as the subject.

Please show up and bring some friends with you. If you do not take action, you will get what they give you. That will most likely be status quo and no chickens.

The workshop packet that will be presented to the City Council Members this Wednesday is to be published this Friday. You can find it on the City's webpage, bakersfieldcity.us , under "City Council Agendas". I recommend that you read it prior to coming to the meeting on Wednesday. It might also provide you with insight into what you should be writing our Council Members about. We are going to start seeing details of what might or might not get approved.

Finally, you are invited to join us on Monday at 7:00 for our weekly Zoom meeting. See the Facebook page for the link.

Here is the email:

"Dear City Planner,

I watched several recorded Council meetings as you suggested to my inquiry regarding what the procedure was like for a workshop presentation, and I now have a better understanding of how the process works. It was nice to see the structure and that there is some flexibility as well. Thank you for that recommendation. Several times, when a city employee was presenting to the City Council Members, the employee would end the presentation with a statement like, " Representatives from ____ are here today if you have any questions for them." I hope we agree that Bakersfield Urban Backyard Hens is an organized and invested group that has been at the forefront of promoting the backyard hen initiative to amend the city's current ordinance to allow for backyard hen ownership in the R-1 zone. I am requesting that whoever presents to the City Council Members at the upcoming Wednesday, August 12th, 3:30 meeting make a similar public statement. "Representatives from the Bakersfield Urban Backyard Hens group are here today if you have any questions for them." I would be the main speaker, but there will be others in attendance with expertise on topics that Council Members may want to discuss further.

Also, are you including a copy of our proposed ordinance in the workshop packet? I believe you should. This seems to me to be an appropriate and balanced action to take as the City presents an unbiased presentation to our Council Members.

Thank you for getting back to me. I look forward to seeing what is published on Friday prior to the upcoming Council meeting.

Sincerely,

Bakersfield Urban Backyard Hens

thebubh.wixsite.com/bubh "