Hi,
On Monday, July 15 we are going in front of the Zoning Board of Appeals to see if we can persuade the Board that "up to three" Nigerian Goats would be okay for us to keep in our small, rural village.
We are looking for a little insight on how to prepare our 5 minute talk to the board from anyone in this group that has been through this process before.
We are also wondering what cities and villages allow residents to have a couple of small goats, especially cities and villages in New York State. Through my research I found San Diego, San Fransisco, Seattle, Portland (OR), and Charlottesville (VA) allow goats. Are there others?
Thanks in advance for your assistance,
Susan in Cobleskill, NY
Replies
Do you know of goats are legal in Chicago land area like out Village of Justice that is 7 miles away from City boundaries. They dont say anything about it being illegal, only mention the no slaughtering and no breeding part.
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
Sorry I missed this when it was first posted. Goats are legal in Vancouver, Washington, with ownership based on our neighbor, Portland, Oregon. Hens are also legal though we do not have a 3-hen limit as does Portland. Honey bees are also allowed with no restrictions (purposely not addressed) whereas Portland requires a one-time permit when getting started. Consensus was that because of the nature of beekeeping (no housing or waste issues), we would just not address it unless it became necessary in the future.
Vancouver's goats are permitted under the revised urban livestock ordinance which allows up to three miniature livestock with miniature defined as under 100 lbs. at maturity. The number of three, as in Portland, includes dogs. More are allowed with acreage to support them.
Beginning in 2009, when we met as a committee to revise the code, one of our members pointed out that with a pair of milking Nigerian Dwarf does, a half dozen hens, and a garden, a family can produce much of their own food on a city lot. Fortunately, our community has been moving toward sustainability for families for the last few years. It is because of that trend that goats became allowed.
i live in the village of moravia which is in the fingerlakes region of new york,i have 3 ndg's and everyone loves them !they have lots of visitors,i live right next to a church.i've had no problems but i checked with the village office first and also let my neighbors know my intentions before i got them.
Thanks Rachel and Deborah,
Hadn't thought of checking my Backyard Chickens for info since people who are looking to own urban chickens have similar issues.
And who would have thought that all livestock was legal in Chicago. That is neat.
Goats are legal in Chicago, always have been, and it's never been a problem. You may not have found it in your search because it's not a big deal. Actually all livestock is legal in Chicago except anything intended for slaughter, really just because they don't want to deal with the sanitation issues involved with people trying to dispose of the left-over carcasses after slaughtering.
If you have an idea of how they're leaning, that helps. Then you can provide info to help allay any fears they may have.
Here's an article with a lot of links to sites that look like they might hold some good information for you. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/dining/23goats.html?pagewanted=al...
It looks like this site in particular was instrumental in the legalizing of goats in Charlotte (closest to you) http://goatjusticeleague.org/
I believe there are some in the New York area... I have read blogs about them, but I can't think of the name of the blogs off the top of my head...
Backyard Chickens has some threads on their forums about how to approach the city about these kinds of changes. Some very thoughtful ideas there that you could glean from pretty quickly.