By Andrew Jenner   andrew@rocktownmail.com

For Lee Good and others, Harrisonburg’s zoning ordinance forbidding backyard chickens doesn’t make sense. Photo by Nikki Fox

Everything seemed to be going well. Lonny Wenger’s chicken flock kept him and his wife well-supplied with eggs, his lawn fertilized and his garden beds pecked clean of pests. Kids in the neighborhood came over to check the birds out, passers-by would stop to watch (Wenger’s yard in northeast Harrisonburg is on a highly visible street corner) and during the year and a half that he had the birds, he grew his flock from one to four hens.

Then, last November, a letter — prompted by an anonymous complaint — arrived in Wenger’s mailbox informing him that there is “no provision for keeping chickens in the R-1 zoning district.” He was given 30 days to get rid of his flock. Wenger pleaded his case with understanding-but-firm city zoning officials before eventually sending his hens to stay with friends in the country who offered temporary asylum.

His was not an isolated case — six chicken-owning city residents were sent zoning violation notices in 2008, plus four more so far this year, according to the city’s public information office. Before long, Wenger hooked up with a number of other chicken fans interested in legalizing in-city backyard flocks. Word spread quickly through the city’s growing foodie circles, and several months ago, the Harrisonburg Backyard Chicken Project (HBCP) was born. Part advocacy, part outreach, the group hopes to convince the city to legalize backyard chicken flocks, then remain in place as an educational resource for residents who have or would like backyard chickens of their own. In late March, around 100 people crowded into Clementine Café to learn more about the effort and show support.

“I was really surprised when I found out it wasn’t legal,” said Eugene Dovis, who’s gotten involved since moving to town in January. “There are so many advantages to having chickens, and so few disadvantages.”

Technically, no law prohibits chickens in the city. They are instead prohibited through the zoning ordinance, which doesn’t explicitly mention chickens, dogs or cats, or any other creatures one might want to keep. Stacy Turner, the city’s director of community development, said that her department draws a distinction between animals traditionally kept as pets and animals typically seen as livestock, like chickens. Since agriculture isn’t allowed in any city zoning district — except in cases where existing uses predated a city annexation — chickens aren’t OK, under existing code.

To the HBCP, backyard chickens are a no-brainer. One of the group’s biggest arguments is the chickens’ value as a local food source.

“The connection to food can’t be overstated,” said Lee Good, who keeps a flock at his home just outside of Harrisonburg, and helped about 20 other people start flocks of their own. “I’m really committed to helping people get more in touch with their food supply.”

Implicit in the local foods argument are a number of environmental and personal health benefits realized by eating eggs from healthy, happy chickens raised just outside the back door, group members say.

Tom Benevento is another member whose family kept five hens until they, too, received a zoning violation notice last year. He said the chickens have an additional value as an educational tool for children, teaching them an appreciation for where food comes from.

“[Having chickens] has been really special for [our sons],” said Benevento, whose flock also awaits a return from zoning ordinance-imposed exile.

“They’re also great workers,” said Beth Schermerhorn, yet another chicken advocate. The chicken’s predation of garden pests and nutrient-rich droppings “totally make [them] worth it for me as a home gardener,” Schermerhoern said.

And they’re just plain fun, they say (“It is cheap therapy to watch chickens,” Good said).

Taking cues from a growing number of other cities that now permit and regulate backyard chicken flocks, the HBCP has proposed an ordinance meant to help chickens, their owners and their neighbors live in harmony. The group has suggested limiting residents to six chickens per lot (with a provision allowing more on larger lots), requiring the chicken owner to pay $5 for a permit and educational materials, banning roosters, requiring owners to keep chickens enclosed and creating mechanisms to address public nuisances, should they arise.

The notion of legalized backyard chickens in Harrisonburg isn’t universally met with unqualified enthusiasm, however.

“Allowing backyard poultry to be kept in the city could pose a disease risk to the commercial poultry industry,” said Hobey Bauhan, president of the Virginia Poultry Federation, which represents the state’s commercial poultry industry.

Bauhan said that raising backyard flocks without the strict biosecurity precautions taken by commercial poultry farmers could increase the risk of outbreaks of avian influenza and other diseases.

“We are concerned about this issue from a biosecurity standpoint,” Bauhan said. “We are in the process of learning the details of the proposal and hope to have input as this issue is considered by the city.”

The area’s last avian influenza outbreak in 2002 (which was not linked to any backyard poultry flock) affected 197 farms, resulted in the extermination of 4.7 million chickens and turkeys and had an impact of more than $130 million on the local farm economy.

That’s a concern the HBCP is aware of and sensitive to, members say, though the group doesn’t think it should preclude legalization of backyard chicken flocks.

Acknowledging Bauhan’s concerns, Wenger said that he sees a distinction between eliminating (or rather, trying to eliminate) a disease risk — by continuing to prohibit backyard chickens in Harrisonburg — and managing that risk — by allowing city residents to raise small flocks in a responsible, healthy manner.

Another point Good raised: like it or not, there are a lot of backyard chickens now living in Harrisonburg. By legalizing and regulating chicken ownership, the city would be able to more thoroughly and quickly respond to a possible disease outbreak, he said.

He also pointed out that backyard chicken flocks are legal in any area of Rockingham County zoned for agricultural use, putting them already in the commercial poultry industry’s backyard. Bauhan said backyard poultry flocks in the county are an existing biosecurity concern of the commercial poultry industry.

The leaders of the Harrisonburg Backyard Chicken Project will appear before the city council on April 14 to present their case for the legalization of backyard chickens, and they hope the council will vote on an ordinance amendment to that effect soon thereafter. Wenger said individual meetings he and others have already had with a number of council members has left him feeling cautiously hopeful that before too long, his chickens can literally come home to roost.

“It does seem like there’s some pretty good support,” Benevento said. “We’d love to have [our chickens] back home by June.”