Zoning board approves backyard chicken coop in Annandale
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| Gerald Miranda’s backyard, where he plans to install a chicken coop. |
The Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals approved a special permit Feb. 10 to allow Annandale homeowner Gerald Miranda to keep 10 chickens in his backyard.
Under the zoning code, homeowners need at least two acres to keep domestic fowl by right. Miranda’s lot is just .65 acres (28,510 square feet), so he needed to apply for a special permit to have a chicken coop at his home at 8920 Rhyme Court in the Springbrook Forest subdivision in the Braddock District.
Miranda told the BZA he wants the chickens so he won’t have to buy eggs from a store. He plans to keep the hens in an 8-foot high, 24-square-foot coop and a 35-foot run area. The BZA requires him to provide tall shrubs to screen the chickens from neighbors.
Related story: Zoning board rejects backyard chickens in Mason District
The county planning staff recommended Miranda be allowed to have eight chickens, but the BZA approved the request for 10, as one member said there’s not a big difference between eight and 10. Miranda submitted letters from his neighbors in support of the chickens.
I can't think of a better way to turn Annandale into any more of dump than it already is than to allow people to keep livestock in a residential area. No one needs to keep chickens in an urban or suburban area. This is 2021, not 1721 or 1821. You can buy a variety of perfectly good eggs and poultry at dozens of convenient locations in Annandale for very reasonable prices. You can even have such items delivered to your home. If people want to be farmers, then they can move to rural areas zoned for farming and keep all the animals they can manage to care for.
Great. We have a rooster and chickens on our street. The rooster crows all day long every day, and is irritating to hear when we are outside (closer neighbors can hear when they are inside). There was a reason for the 2 acre requirement. I hate to see exceptions being made. Eggs aren't that expensive.
I cant wait till the cows show up for fresh milk and the pigs for fresh pork. This is one good way to jump start viruses from animals to people. The BoZ and BoS really need to go back to school for brain development.
What a bunch of bozos on the BZA. There are guidelines for good reasons. Getting silly around here.
Just wait until zMOD takes hold, you will really experience crazy and they are taking away your opportunity to have ANY say. This is what your tax dollars are paying for with the advice of the consulting class.
Anonymous 2/12/21, 10:01, you are exactly right. zMOD will allow everything to happen by-right. The county doesn't want to have to enforce any zoning regulations. It will be neighbor against neighbor. Even if there is a zoning regulation on the books, they don't have a real Department of Code Enforcement. Chickens will be the least of our worries.
dumbest reason ever. Please approve my chicken coop for 10 chickens because I don't want to spend a dollar or two on a dozen of eggs at the store. bza: "sure, no problem. we understand why no one wants to go to the store. You don't want to buy milk there either, why don't we just add a cow and goat to your approved livestock?"
I applaud the FFX county Board of Zoning Appeals for hearing this and approving this, Miranda received letters of support from his neighbors. I, for one would not like to be next door to chickens who will make noise at sunrise. However, if the property owner wants it, and the neighbors are fine with it, by all means why not let Miranda have his chickens and fresh eggs. Maybe he cut a deal so the neighbors would have some of those fresh eggs too.
Sounds to me that your judgment on this issue is like scrambled eggs.
But with zMOD, the owner can just do it without getting letters from his neighbors, it will be by right. The public is losing its right to weigh in on these issue BEFORE it happens. And if it impacts you negatively, move. That is the future if we allow zMOD to be passed.
No idea what acreage is reasonable for this, but 0.65 seems to be pushing it. Like others have said, there are plenty of options for organic, free range eggs at reasonable cost. It seems unlikely that egg costs are really tipping the budget here.
When I first moved to Annandale, there WERE dairy cows. On Gallows Road a couple blocks from Columbia Pike.
It was a nicer Annandale, then…
For sure, now all that is left is the manure.
Not even the first chickens in Annandale now. I hear a rooster all of the time now from one of my neighbors. Out of all of the noises I hear it is one of the least objectionable. Much more objectionable is the other neighbor who leaves their dog out all night, or the traffic on nearby Braddock Rd, to name a few.
Growing up in the 70's in Los Angeles within bicycling distance of downtown, lots of people had chickens on their quarter acre pipe-stem lots. One of my neighbors even had a cow. On a quarter acre lot. It was pretty skinny, but still provided milk.
I'd much rather hear a rooster or chicken than the annoying gas powered leaf blowers the lawn services use.
Raising chickens on a small scale is far better for the environment than supporting large farming:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315077026_The_environmental_impact_of_poultry_production
In fact, raising chickens is the most sustainable type of livestock one can raise and maintain.
As long as they can keep they properly maintain the coop, I don't see any issue with this. This individual is not obligated to give you a better reason than "wanting fresh eggs". It is their property. They have individual rights.
This individual should not be punished for your collective ignorance and intolerance.
Perhaps the person prefers to have eggs from hens that are not treated cruelly. And I don't think that noises from roosters (mentioned in another case, but not required for egg-laying by hens) are any more objectionable than noises often made by neighbors' children or dogs. I've heard far worse from loud music – heard from the next building, as if a disco joint, or from halfway down the street, from many cars.
That 2 acre requirement is the key. That neighborhood was designed for residential; Not livestock. If he wants livestock, sell the residential house and move to a farm or move to a 2 acre lot. Nothing against organic or fresh eggs…those are all valid points. But, when would a community minded person ever buy a house in a quiet suburban neighborhood with the intent of raising chickens – or with the intent of living next to someone raising chickens.
Some of these new people entering our county are use to semi-rural living of their native countries. NOVA is not Vietnam, China, El Salvador, etc. or any of these other countries that do not have strict heath department restrictions, i.e. Bat markets that spread COVID. BZD should have told them to move out into rural VA.
Very many of the people now raising chickens at home are native born Americans going back generations. Raising chickens is a trendy "thing", and now doubly appealing as people have renewed interest in their gardens. Chickens complement the vegetable garden by picking up bugs and caterpillar pests as well as through their droppings.
Raising chickens is not cheap, it's much more expensive than buying eggs. People who have pets and chickens do so for the love of animals and being in touch with the natural world. I agree with the poster who would prefer hearing chickens and a rooster compared with leaf blowers (loud enough to damage hearing) and constantly barking dogs.