You can fry chickens, but you can’t keep ‘em, zoning officials tell Paula Deen
Down on the Georgia coast, the long arm of Chatham County officials are reaching into the backyards of celebrity cook Paula Deen and others – for keeping chickens in a non-agricultural zone.
From the Savannah Morning News:
Deen’s publicist Nancy Assuncao said Deen believes she is in compliance with the zoning ordinance. If the county finds otherwise, Assuncao said, it would upset Deen to have to get rid of her beloved birds, which were rescued after serving as monitors for West Nile virus for the Chatham County Mosquito Control Board.
“I don’t know what to say; it’ll be devastating to her,” Assuncao said. “When she’s home the thing she loves so much is to see her chickens at the start of the day. She holds them like they’re little babies.”
Sounds like a job for former Gov. Roy Barnes, who recently beat a similar ordinance in Roswell.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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55 comments Add your comment
mamaj
June 28th, 2011
6:40 pm
Dang, you people pick the d——things to blog about. I love Paula Deen, but I’m more interested in eating a chicken, than hearing about some. and yes, Yankee, @2:18 P.M., the AJC does love to stir the pot, but they just don’t know what —-to put in the pot.
bob
June 28th, 2011
11:37 pm
Imagine that, the famous and politically connected get favors just like an ex governor who got his own fancy museum built for millions in some podunk town that nobody ever visits.
Wake up people the legislature is supposed to serve the people not control them.
Victoria Morton
June 29th, 2011
11:36 am
I had a similar problem in Safety Harbor, FL. I bought 18 chickens (no roosters to annoy my neighbors) and enjoyed their eggs. I had a city inspector come out for another reason and the battle started. They told me that I couldn’t have chickens unless I got “permission’ from the city board. My chickens were in a clean humane pen and were very healthy. I objected to this intrusion of my own property rights. The city went into overdrive, I had inspectors walking on my property as though they owned it in an intimidating manner, one said “I used to be a policeman.” I did notice he was no longer carrying a gun! The city posted a sign at the front of my property, sent me registered letters, made many phone calls to me. Two of the letters said that if I hadn’t corrected ‘the problem” by a date 10 days from the letter I would be fined $250 a day. What the hell! It seemed odd that absolute strangers who had no complaint to work from should take such an interest in me. Perhaps it was because I had found out that the city of Safety Harbor was not owned by the people of Safety Harbor but was owned by a for profit corporation out of Ohio who registered their corporation in Maryland. How did I find this out:? I took in a W9 form which public servants (servants, Hah!) are required to fill out. It asks for the EIN number (Employee Identification Number) of who they work for. I got 2 filled out, one from the City Treasurer and one from the City Manager. I turned out that the City Treasurer was not a city employee but an accounting firm hired by the city. The City Manager’s EIN number traced back to the Ohio (for profit) corporation. Do you think they didn’t want this fact known and escalated the great chicken war? Further investigation showed that the corporation who “owns” Safety Harbor can actually pledge the homes in the area against loans without our knowledge.
Check out your city, police force and other municipal services and find out who owns your town.
After all the harrassment I sent the chickens to live in the country, I hate that!
Victoria
liberalefty
June 29th, 2011
4:44 pm
thang god for government regulations. what if everybody wanted to drill for oil in their neighborhood? what if some wanted to raise wolves in their neighborhood? what if some wanted to start a zoo on their property. its easy to be simplistic and say “big guvment is taking away our property rights”.
liberalefty
June 29th, 2011
4:44 pm
i meant “thank”