Cecilia Lewis (ABOVE), 19 months at the time this picture was taken holds a chicken raised by their family and used in home-school lessons.(Contributed photo)
Chris and Erin Lewis want to continue to keep the four or five hens they’ve had at 115 Hycliff Road for the past three years.
The chickens provide eggs for their family and learning opportunities for their young, home-schooled children, they said in a presentation to the Rome-Floyd County Planning Commission earlier this month.
But the rambling urban poultry also pose a safety hazard for their elderly neighbor, the woman’s daughter Regina Bishop told the board — and there is the fear of histoplasmosis, a disease caused by airborne fungus that can live in bird droppings.
The planning commission voted 5-3 to recommend denial of the permit.
City Commissioners have twice rejected an ordinance that would have allowed and regulated chickens in residential areas. In a caucus discussion about the Lewises’ application, City Commissioner Buzz Wachsteter protested the scheduled hearing.
“We have a consensus: no livestock in the corporate limits,” he said. “Enough is enough.”
But City Manager John Bennett noted that special-use permits are possible under local law, and Commissioner Bill Collins said the issue is not going away.
“Buzz, maybe you’re not riding the streets then, baby, because chickens are everywhere,” Collins said.
Both the Lewises and Bishop brought supporters to the planning commission’s Oct. 4 hearing.
The Rome City Commission caucuses at 5 p.m. and starts its regular session at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 601 Broad St. Both sessions are open to the public. Click here for a complete agenda packet.
Among the other items on the board’s agenda are decisions on the Alcohol Control Commission’s recommendation of license suspensions at three restaurants caught selling alcohol to minors.
The ACC recommended a two-day suspension of the pouring permit at the Stonebridge Grill. The grill is at the city-owned Stonebridge Golf Club, which is managed by Billy Casper Golf.
If approved, the grill would not be able to serve alcohol this Saturday and Sunday.
Three-day suspensions are recommended at El Toro Mexican Restaurant, 2115 Shorter Ave., and Mi Alazan, 3 Central Plaza. If approved, the suspensions would run Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Last Thursday, Morton donned his tin foil hat and did his best John Wisdom impersonation to warn Rome of it's impending doom. Listen to his own words as he rallied the Tea Party faithful: :Holy cow folks! What is going on here? Why is a law-abiding citizen's property rights, his unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (property rights) being scooped up by a local government that has no Constitutional power, certainly no right to trample on a citizens property rights. This is a "Don't Tread On Me" moment friends. We cannot allow a cabal of political bureaucrats take us here in Rome, GA down the slippery slope to tyranny. And make no mistake about it, this is indeed tyranny." WHEW! Thank you Mike Morton.
Now I know just how close Rome, Georgia is to all out TYRANNY! A few chickens is all that stands between us and a dictatorship.
Doesn't every law place restrictions on the people in some way? So, if you follow Morton's logic, every law is a restriction on everyone's "right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". So why have any zoning laws? For that matter, why have any laws period? Morton apparently wants to replace his vision of "tyranny" with all out anarchy. You know, no laws; Every man for himself.
I wish Morton's next door neighbor would decide to pursue happiness by piling about a dozen junk cars in his front yard and let his grass grow about 3 feet high. And while he pursuing happiness, maybe play his stereo wide open until 5am. Surely Morton can understand how zoning ordinances and noise ordinances are infringing on his neighbor's constitutional rights.
Hrer's the bottom line, if you want to keep chickens in your yard, move to the county. If you enjoy the Politics of Fear, join the Rome Tea Party and Mike Morton will be there to point out just how close we all are to the end of the civilized free world.
Wait until you hear Morton's Call to Arms over the greatest threat known to mankind. A threat even worse than chickens. It's Agenda 21, straight from the United Nations. It's their secret plan to take over the world, not through the use of military might, but through something even more powerful .... Zoning Laws and Land use Planning. Where is Batman when you really need him?
Mike Morton and I have very few things that we agree on, but this is one. No government entity should be able to tell me what I can or can't do on my property as long as I am not harming someone or being cruel to animals.
For the record, I am unaffiliated with the Rome Tea Party.
"No government entity should be able to tell me what I can or can't do on my property as long as I am not harming someone or being cruel to animals."
Let me have your address so I can go next door to your house and pile up a dozen or so junk automobiles. That certainly isn't causing you any physical harm. Or maybe I might want to raise hogs next door to you or open a 24 hour night club.Those also don't cause you any physical harm. They DO happen to cause you monetary harm by lowering your property values and ruining your neighborhood. That's why we have such laws and ordinances. That's why we have a civilized society and a government based on laws rather than of men.If you want to invest your hard earned money in a house where your neighbor can do anything he wants with his property, and ignore the wishes of his neighbors and destroy their property values, then you have the "Right" to move into the county where the restrictions are much less. If you want to have a $500,000 house with a stinking hog farm next door, move to the county to prove your point that "By Gawd, the guvment can't tell me what to do with my property". And good luck when you decide to sell.
Hens do not lower property values. Do your research. And civilized? Really? The very same supposedly "civilized" and "respectable" neighborhood has a family of white trash running around threatening people with their shotguns.
Yea...I think Hens are the least of our worries in Fair Oaks.
You make the mistake of thinking you know anything at all.
"You make the mistake of thinking you know anything at all"
Why is it that you can't make your point without resorting to insults? You must feel that you're incapable of making an intellectual argument.
But of course, you're the guy who said "junk cars, not my problem" and "hogs, not my problem". I promise you, if your neighbor started raising hogs next door, you would be the first one to call the City and demand that something be done. Find me another homeowner in Fair Oaks that doesn't think piles of junk cars and a few fat sloppy hogs won't affect them or their property values. You say you don't agree with Mike Morton. Sounds like you could be next in line for the Throne at the Rome Tea Party.
If you had attended the meeting you would have heard that hens do not lower property values. Kept responsibly, there is no concern over this any more than a neighbor having three dogs would lower property values. If my next door neighbors had hogs, as long as they were kept responsibly and in a number which caused no odor to neighbors, then there would be no problem. The city government will work to ensure that there are regulations that respect all members of the community, just as there are regulations on people who own dogs, such as leash laws and keeping them fenced.
People like you, concerned with what your neighbors are doing, are the reason we have such idiotic laws. Mind your own business and let others mind theirs.
How old are you? Over 55? Seems that the only people opposed to this are older. Maybe if you had the pulse of the people, you'd realize that the next generations are more live and let live.