Family hopes to keep pet chickens on their GHT lot

Sat, Nov 14, 2009    to del.icio.us

GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP — Hannah Fidelman's two-legged pet, Sweetie Pie, enjoys swaying inside the tire swing in front of the girl's home and even plays "dead."

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The Grand Haven Township girl has three pet chickens — named Sweetie Pie, Peckers and Baby Girl — and she said they gobble up dinner scraps and fall asleep in her arms.

"Our chickens are pretty much like dogs," the White Pines Middle School sixth-grader said. "They chase you around and cuddle up with you sometimes."

But the chickens — either as pets or farm poultry — are not allowed where the Fidelman family lives.

The Fidelmans — who also have two dogs, a cat and a bird — are requesting to amend a township ordinance that would allow their three "pet" chickens, as well as two baby chicks that are part of a school project, to be kept on their 1.15-acre residential property.

Because poultry are not considered domestic animals, the Grand Haven Township zoning ordinance has separate requirements for keeping poultry in a residential district, such as having a minimum 5-acre lot for two poultry animals. Any additional poultry requires an extra 2 acres per animal, according to Township Community Development Director Patrick Waterman.

"They've got chickens and less than 5 acres — that's the issue," Waterman said of the Fidelmans' case.

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When Hannah, 11, expressed interest in having a pet chicken, her father researched and discovered a popular trend in larger cities that allow "urban chickens," Chuck Fidelman said.

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In May, the Fidelmans purchased six Rhode Island red hens from a Tractor Supply Co. store. About a month later, the family discovered that one chicken was, in fact, a young rooster when it crowed for the first time at dawn.

"That's what started the problem," Chuck said.

A neighbor complained to township officials about the cock-a-doodle-doing. As a result, the Fidelmans quickly relocated the rooster to a Van Buren County farm, and the township began an ordinance violation investigation.

"It's not the fact that there is a complaint — but when we receive a complaint, we go out and investigate it," Waterman said. "If there is a violation, then we have to act on it."

Currently, the township's Ordinance Review Committee is looking over the case and researching information regarding similar laws in other communities. The committee next meets Dec. 1.

"As long as it's regulated, I don't see it as a problem," Chuck said. "I do agree that there needs to be rules. I don't want to be offensive to any neighbors."

Chuck said his daughter plays with the chickens on a daily basis, like they were a pet dog, and the chickens seem to enjoy the interaction.

"For Hannah, it's extremely educational, learning how to care for them," he said.

Hannah, who said she aspires to be a veterinarian some day, spends much of her spare time tending to and playing with the outdoor — and occasionally indoor — chickens. She carries them up to her tree stand in front of the house, pushes them on the tire swing, and chases them around the yard and in the leaves.

"I just want people to be able to have chickens as pets if they want to," the girl said. "People should be able to have pets if they take care of them. I've always liked animals and like the idea of helping animals."

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The Fidelmans keep the chickens in an 8-foot-square coop in their backyard, and it is moved every so often along the back end of the property for lawn fertilizer. They say their pet chickens don't smell, don't make noise, produce eggs "like clockwork" and are "built-in fertilizer."

"We purposely (keep them) at the back of the property so they don't bother anybody," Chuck said. "We just assumed, with this kind of property, that it wasn't a problem — until the rooster crowed."

Hannah's mother, Bonnie Fidelman, said the chickens are a lot of fun.

"I'll shuffle my fingers in front of them and I'll play with them," she said.

Earlier this week, Hannah petitioned neighbors to keep her pet chickens. Sixteen neighbors, in addition to seven White Pines Middle School teachers, signed the petition in support of keeping the chickens, Chuck said.

However, some of the family's Bittersweet Drive neighbors say they have mixed feelings about the Fidelmans' request to amend the 5-acre minimum on residential property.

"It's not farmland," said Cindy Paulson, who lives directly south of the Fidelmans. "If you let them have chickens, the next thing is a goat, a cow — you name it."

Paulson, who said she signed the petition without really understanding it — and wished she hadn't — said she has "nicely" put notices on the Fidelmans' door three times about keeping the chickens off her property.

"I just feel that if they're allowed to get any more, they're going to push the limit," Paulson added.

Another neighbor, David Smart, said he supports the Fidelmans' request.

"I don't see any issue if they want to have fresh eggs," he said. "I have never noticed them — that's why I don't see it as a problem."