Soap Lake Municipal code forcing me to keep my chickens in their coop PERMANENTLY

[IdyllwildAcres]

Hello,
City municipal code link here: https://www.codepublishing.com/WA/SoapLake/

I am a very frustrated and angry chicken owner. I am working very hard to keep my girls safe and happy. I have a neighbor who had called municipal code on my coop for being too close to my property line. So I moved it. Then I got another letter for my “chickens running at large”
The attached photo is their proof. The photos is my girls in a run I’ve been building.
I called the police department and they specified that if my chickens are not in a coop, henhouse, or tractor then they are considered at large. I don’t have money to buy anything new. Also my girls like to walk around my backyard while my wife is home but apparently that’s even more of a no now. I can’t keep them in my wooden coop!! That’s inhumane!! They need to forage.
The code officer told me if I don’t like it I need to change the municipal code by getting in contact with city council.

If dogs can be inside a fence and not be at large, my girls should too.
Also apologies on my yard, it’s a work in progress.

Please help!! I don’t know where to go from here on…

Build a chicken run, the code allows it:

Chapter 6.07
CHICKENS​

B. Henhouses, coops and chicken tractors including chicken runs shall not exceed 120 square feet in size and shall not exceed eight feet in height at the structure’s highest point.

Breath, relax... A 10x12 run is the solution.

 

[Red Mangrove]

The root problem is that law enforcement doesn't understand the law here, yet they "enforce" it anyways. I would recommend getting an attorney and perhaps sue code enforcement for giving a false violation and unnecessary hardship

 

[LuciferRoo]

Awesome idea. My town is super small so we don’t have a homesteading or chicken page. We have a Soap Lake for Locals page however. Would posting on there be a good idea?

Soap Lake WA...hmm is your neighbor a Seattle transplant?

 

[CrazyChickLady64]

Go buy garden fencing it's cheap and make a fence and top with it your chickens are able to roam the yard and no one can say they are at large. Staple it to the coop and bring it out from there placing 2x2s in the ground to staple it to. I know it may not be pretty. Only needs to be large enough to give them free range space till you can afford a really tall fence also check FB market place you may be able to find free fence someone is getting rid of just paint it. Good luck

 

[Echo and Pans Innangard]

...
I called the police department and they specified that if my chickens are not in a coop, henhouse, or tractor then they are considered at large. ...
I can’t keep them in my wooden coop!!

Please help!! I don’t know where to go from here on…

Sorry!
I really didn't read everything in the 5 pages of replies.. This is just off reading your main post and not looking at your specific Codes...
I am also a person who enjoys a good Malicious Compliance Story.

Hen House: Noun:
A house or shelter for fowl

This is a simple one to understand.
Definition of Shelter: Something that Covers and Affords Protection, also a position or the state of being covered and protected.

With Merriam-Webster being the source.

Coop: Noun:
Definition #1:
A cage or small enclosure (as for poultry)
Also
A small building for housing poultry
Definition #2:
A: A confined area
B: Jail
Definition of enclosure is the act or action of enclosing.
Definition of enclosing is to surround, to confine, also To Fence Off For Individual Use

I would seriously just stick up some tall T-Posts... some anti-hawk netting, and look at the Code Enforcement person and state clear as day..

My Chickens are are contained in a Legal Henhouse Shelter and a Legal Coop Enclosure, their own personal Chicken Jail that they cannot escape from.

I'd probably still pay a fine.

 

[Echo and Pans Innangard]

Quick Update to my Malicious Compliance Statement...

They are listing these things as separate items by not stating COMBINED.
Therefor I would say that your hen-house (SHELTER) can be no more than 120 sq ft (which is a 10 foot by 12 foot square).
Then, your Coop (ENCLOSURE) can be no more than 120 sq feet.

Then if you really want, you could say you have more than ONE henhouse, and more than ONE Coop...and more than one chicken tractor, and they may ask why...

I'd ask them "Well, one Hen-House, Coop, and Tractor is for my Laying Hens, and one Hen-House, Coop, and Tractor are for the mistake Broilers they sent me from the hatchery... I didn't want them, I asked for Hens.. but I guess they had a new guy sexing them and this is what they sent. So yeah, I got a henhouse, coop, and tractor for the hens, for the broilers, and I got a brooding coop cause I can't afford to keep buying hens every year... and then I needed a place to put the wounded chickens, so I built them their own coop and henhouse out of recycled pallets..." and the list goes on...

Who says you cannot have two seperate Chicken Enclosures that are 100 sq/feet a piece.. in two different places... that just happen to have open chicken sized doors during the day connecting them all so they can visit each other?

 

[TaylorGlade]

I was going to suggest what @FunClucks said - ask around for pallets and build a run with it. A lot of people don't want their neighbors chickens in their yard pooping, digging up the yard, etc. We have 5 acres, but it's narrow. We keep ours in a chicken run (600 SQ feet) for that reason.

If they can be in a "tractor" an enclosed run should also be acceptable because a tractor is just a mobile enclosed run.

 

[Nym]

Is that maybe the base objection of your neighbor?

Remind your neighbours of the City motto lol jk