Farmer facing chicken eviction wins short reprieve for poultry
A Vancouver chicken farmer has been granted a short reprieve by city bylaw officers who want her to relocate her flock — despite the fact she lives in an Agriculture Land Reserve area.
Robin Friesen said the city let her keep 150 chicks beyond the original removal deadline of April 12, and she’s hopeful she’ll be able to make a case to continue farming on half an acre in the Southlands neighbourhood.
After going public with her situation last week, the farmer received an outpouring of support from people who feel ALR land in Vancouver shouldn’t be subject to the city’s backyard chicken bylaw, which forbids people from keeping more than four hens.
Typically, ALR land is governed by the provincial Right to Farm Act, which allows farmers to keep livestock and tend crops that, in an urban setting, might irritate neighbours. City bylaws do not apply to issues like smell, noise and the number of chickens a farmer can keep on ALR land.
But as Agriculture Land Commission executive director Kim Grout confirmed, Southlands is an exception to that. An order written in 1989 stipulates that city bylaws apply on Vancouver’s ALR land.
“Vancouver is within its right to enforce bylaws there,” Grout told Postmedia News, speculating that perhaps the order was put in place as an alternative to excluding the “unique” neighbourhood from the ALR all together.
A neighbour’s complaint about a noisy rooster tipped off bylaw officers to Friesen’s farm and she was given several days to remove her birds.
“I didn’t take (the bylaw officer) seriously,” she said. “This is ALR land. I told him to go back and read the laws.”
But while the laws remain unchanged, Friesen has been given extra time to relocate her birds, said a city spokesperson. “In some cases, the city will grant additional time for relocation as we’ve done here.”
Friesen hopes the city will eventually go further, pointing to its pledge to become a “global leader in urban food systems.” She hopes to meet with officials about the issue in the days to come.