I need help interpreting these by laws

[Reurra]

Ok, we are considering moving to a new area. Its a small town here in Nova Scotia. I read over the by laws and cant find anything that says I cannot keep a chicken, but I did find something that says "An intensive livestock operation" Which is 10 or more animals. There are bounds too, such as R-1, R-2 and R-3 requirements, but they fall under intensive, again nothing is stated about keeping under 10 birds, or the keeping of any birds at all.

Here is the link to the land use bylaws. Im terrible at legal jargon. Any help would be tremendous!

http://www.town.springhill.ns.ca/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=139



Here is an exert of 2 sections, the only ones I can find pertaining to livestock or poultry for that matter.





SPECIAL REQUIREMENT: KEEPING OF AGRICULTURAL ANIMALS

4. The keeping of agricultural animals in a R-3 Zone shall be subject to the following requirements:

(a) any structure housing an intensive livestock operation shall be a minimum of 100 m. (328.1 ft.) from the boundary of a R-1, R-2, Commercial, or Parks and Recreation Zone;


(b) any structure housing an intensive livestock operation shall be 500 m. (1640.4 ft.) from the boundary of a R-1, R-2, Commercial, or Parks and Recreation Zone.






36. INTENSIVE LIVESTOCK OPERATION means a livestock operation comprised of agricultural animals confined in one location which consists of 10 or more animal units.


The following chart shall be used for the calculation of total animal units; animals not listed shall be treated according to the approximate equivalent of their body weight as a mature animal:



Animal Units
Number Equal to
Type of Animal One Animal Unit

Cattle, Horses 1
Sheep, Goats, Ponies 4
Chickens, Ducks, Pheasants 50
Swine 2
Turkeys, Geese, Mink, Foxes 10
Rabbits 100

 

[dretd]

Ok, we are considering moving to a new area. Its a small town here in Nova Scotia. I read over the by laws and cant find anything that says I cannot keep a chicken, but I did find something that says "An intensive livestock operation" Which is 10 or more animals. There are bounds too, such as R-1, R-2 and R-3 requirements, but they fall under intensive, again nothing is stated about keeping under 10 birds, or the keeping of any birds at all...

36. INTENSIVE LIVESTOCK OPERATION means a livestock operation comprised of agricultural animals confined in one location which consists of 10 or more animal units.


The following chart shall be used for the calculation of total animal units; animals not listed shall be treated according to the approximate equivalent of their body weight as a mature animal:
Animal Units
Number Equal to
Type of Animal One Animal Unit

Cattle, Horses 1
Sheep, Goats, Ponies 4
Chickens, Ducks, Pheasants 50
Swine 2
Turkeys, Geese, Mink, Foxes 10
Rabbits 100

Hi Reurra!

I think you need to find out what zoning the property you are looking at is. For instance, in my town there is a chicken law on the books that outlaws roosters, but I am exempt becasue of the way the law is written. It says that if you are in a zoning that allows farm animals (which my zoning, Urban Estate does), the chicken ordinanace doesn't apply to me and all other parts of the law are mute, so I can have a rooster.

But I digress. I can't really help you with your specific query at this time, but I wanted to clarify some of the legal jargon for you:

You are assuming that when they say 10 animal units, they mean 10 animals (chickens). In fact, they are defining how many animals of each species you can have that are counted as one animal unit. Since a horse is big, it counts as 1 unit and you can only have 10 of them. Since Ponies are smaller, there are 4 ponies for 1 animal unit so you could have 4x10=40 ponies. For chickens, they are yet smaller, so 50 chickens make up one animal unit so you can have 50x10=500 chickens in your intensive livestock operation. As you can see there are all sorts of set back requirement, and for good reason.

Try to look at the properties and find out what kind of zoning they have to start. If you identify a property, you can talk to the neighbors and get a feeling for the restrictions as there may be covenants in place that are more restrictive than the town's laws.

 

[CAjerseychick]

Reurra, I was going to say the same thing (but the above person said it waay) better-- the dog control ordinance link is really not what to look at for chicken allowability-- it depends on the zoning of the property and what your zone is,even if it is within city limits, it will still be zoned and may be different for each neighbor hood-- you can google a city/ zoning map of the area and then look up the specifics of each Zone, or you can just call City Hall and ask someone which City Department handles Neighborhoods/zoning ordinances-- who to talk to about the zoning, and if they have a specific Backyard Chicken Ordinance or Amendment...

Also it sounds like you can Only have an Intensive livestock operation in R-3. But that doesnt mean you cant have some sort of livestock in the other areas--
R-1, R-2,
but I doubt in-
Commercial, or Parks and Recreation Zone;
(I am in R-2, here in the US I think I can something like 100 birds per acre)...

 

[Reurra]

Ohhh Sorry! If you look at the link, the quotes I got were from Land Use By Laws, its third one down. Sorry, I should ahve mentioned that it was lower down in that link, not the dog one lol.

I believe the lot is R-3, but the property is about 60 feet from an elementary school so Im not sure what that is zoned. As it says it must be several meters away from parks and such, but says nothing about school zones.

The reason I think it was R3 is because there are 3 quadplexes behind the property and the house itself used to be a duplex.

Dredt thanks for the reply! Yeah I wasnt sure if they considered that or if that was an actual number. I only want to ahve 5 chickens if I move in there, not 500! lol I cant reach the land use guy until monday though, so i wanted some information under my belt before confronting him.