news-record.com

If you happen to see someone approaching you in a chicken costume this weekend, don’t cry foul. It’s likely Amy Williams, an Elon law school student. She and Brian Talbert have been raising chickens in the yard of their home near Lindley Park.

Williams is donning the costume to draw attention to her quest to get the city ordinance changed to allow more residents to house chickens. Or chicken coops, to be more exact.

The couple received a notice from the city telling them they were violating an ordinance that requires chicken coops to be at least 50 feet from all property lines. That prohibits most people in Greensboro from keeping chickens. Yet, increasingly, Greensboro residents are keeping chickens in their yards.

Tired of factory-farmed eggs and poultry, wanting their kids — and themselves — to be closer to nature, people want "grow your own" to include chickens as well as veggies. Some cities make it easy: Raleigh, for example, has never prohibited raising chickens. In other cities, such as Durham, poultry lovers are doing what Williams is going to do this weekend: circulate a petition to gain support for revising the rules.

Some city dwellers complain that chickens are noisy and smelly. But surely, an ordinance can be written to address these problems: Outlawing roosters would likely take care of the noise problem while setting a limit on brood size would limit smells.

Heck, allowing chickens may even be good for economic development in the city. Tour the blogosphere and you’ll see that a variety of stylish chicken coops (especially in places like Seattle) abound. Think of the carpentry jobs! Former write-in mayoral candidate Billy Jones already is blogging about being able to build mobile pens, or chicken tractors, for city folk interested in giving their birds a free-range experience.

Allowing residents to raise poultry is an easy way to make the city more livable. Let’s hope the city doesn’t chicken out.