Follow Up Email To The City Planning Director - After Our Zoom Conversation ...

Below you will find an email that I just sent to our City Planning Director. We meet, via Zoom, the other day. Also in attendance were two code enforcement supervisors. Over all, the meeting went. I appreciated that the city reached out to us to have a conversation. What we discussed had more of a tone of, "If an ordinance is approved what would it look like." We discussed specifics and details. Some points they were bring up were much too restrictive and often unreasonable. I wanted to share a few of them with you so you are informed and may prepare for what is possibly coming next. However, first you should know that several people are researching information for us. If you have expertise in these areas or have contacts that do, please let me know. Email me at thebubh@gmail.com

1. What is the process (ex: our opportunities to be heard at upcoming presentations) at the "workshop" that most likely will be presented by the City Planning Director at the August 12th City Council meeting?

2. May we show video and/or media presentations at the workshop?

3. How early may we have a copy of the board packet for the upcoming workshop?

4. What is the likely path to a vote by city council on this topic?

At some point the details of a proposed ordinance would have to be discussed. It is not enough to just state that one is generally in favor of backyard hens. The hard and important work gets done in the details. I consider it a positive that we have made it to this stage so early in the process. That is a testament to all of our efforts. The City of Bakersfield is hearing us.

The topics that the city staff spent time asking and discussing at our Zoom meeting were: number of hens allowed, location of coop in the backyard, and permits. First, (number of hens) they did not state a number, but we did agree that that ordinances across the state vary from two to 25. I made the point that hens are flock animals and they need several to be healthy. I also pointed out that many people will get the number of hens that they want, (for example, 6) and not always the maximum allowed. I pointed out that many families have one dog and not the maximum allowed. I also emphasized that the number allowed should be larger because many people want to keep some older hens that are past laying, while starting younger hens to keep the flow of eggs coming. Finally, I mentioned that many breeds of hens lay different size and quantity of eggs and many people want hens that lay less frequent and smaller eggs. Our "PROPOSED ORDINANCE" states that we believe the maximum number allowed should be 12. Second, (location of coop) they talked about distance from neighboring home and distant from fence line. They did not state actual distances. I emphasizes that any distant should be lower (less) due to equity issues of families with smaller lots. They also mentioned submitting a backyard diagram of the coop location to have on record. Our "PROPOSED ORDINACE" states that the distance of the coop should be 10 feet away from the neighboring residence. We do not believe a diagram should be submitted. They also mentioned materials used in construction of the coop. I explained that hens are loved pets and people want and provide safe and secure coops for them because they do not want them harmed. I encouraged them to watch our videos to get a better understanding of how beautiful backyard coops are. Third, (permits) they talked about permits being part of the agreement so that it was document what the expectation is to own hens. People would actually have to go down and complete the permit process. They made it sound like one permit per home (not for number of birds). I stressed that permits create more oversight and possible work for their department. I shared that backyard hens is already a practice that is accepted by the residents of Bakersfield (both hen owners and neighbors). I pointed out that permits should not have a fee attached to them (and if they do it should be minimal). Our "PROPOSED ORDANCE" states "no permits required". They even made a statement that backyard hen owns might have to get their neighbors permission to have them. I told them that was not reasonable and should not be considered.

I will keep you posted as we approach the board presentation by the City planning Director. We might need a flock of you to be present, vocal and heard regarding the details. Thanks in advance for your efforts, commitment and support.

Here is the email I sent.

"Dear City Planning Director,

Thank you for the time you provided the other day to discuss backyard hens. I appreciated the opportunity to answer some of your questions. It is important that the city employees and our community understand that hens make wonderful pets, with many benefits, but are also much less of a nuisance than dogs and stray cats. They are appropriate pets for the backyard. I do have follow up questions for you and additional topics that I would like to share. Even though you generously gave an hour to the discussion, it ended abruptly due to another meeting you had to attend. I would like to take you up on your offer to continue our conversation. Thank you. Would you prefer that we email, have a phone conversation, or schedule another zoom meeting? I have provided a link to one of our PSA videos for you to view below. You may find other videos of Bakersfield backyard hens on the website, under the "blog" section. The website is:  thebubh.wixsite.com/bubh Also, we have a YouTube channel, YouTube Bakersfield Urban Backyard Hens, with several other videos stored on it.  They are worth watching. I hope you spend time on the website to get a clear understanding of our group's position and strong feelings towards backyard hens being allowed. Please look over our proposed ordinance that is located on the website under the "document" tab, as that will provide you good insight into what we believe is reasonable and fair.  Here is the link to the video. It is approximately 6 minutes long. I am confident that you will enjoy and appreciate it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIqbGVpEWUo

As you will see in the video, backyard hens are in our neighborhoods already, and that backyard hen ownership is widely accepted as a healthy and reasonable backyard activity for homeowners by our Bakersfield community.

Thank you again, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,