Chickens can be found pecking in a few yards throughout the grid in Durango. But if you live in a subdivision, odds are, poultry is prohibited.
Residents of La Plata County are allowed to keep their feathered friends with few or no restrictions from county and city ordinances. County code does not police the keeping of chickens in any capacity, and municipal governance is limited. But pet and livestock regulations within neighborhoods are set at the discretion of homeowners associations, and many ban chickens as loud, messy annoyances that attract predators.
Apart from household pets, which cannot be kept or bred for commercial purposes, “no animals, reptiles, primates, fish, fowl or insects of any kind” can be kept, raised or bred at Edgemont Ranch. The same rules apply to Timberline View Estates.
Poultry is also a no-no in Rafter J, though horses and other farm animals are allowed for 4-H projects, said HOA President Charles Trantham, who said the no-chicken policy has been in place for the last 30 years to his knowledge.
In Bayfield, horses are allowed but no chickens in River Ranch, while Deer Valley Estates does not allow any animals to be used for commercial purposes. The Three Springs community bans livestock and poultry.
In addition to household pets, Shenandoah homeowners are allowed up to two horses, ponies, mules or donkeys provided they live on minimum 5-acre lots. One additional animal of the same type is allowed for each additional 3 acres.
But no chickens.
Local mobile home communities like Island Cove Park and Narrow Gauge Mobile Home Park don’t allow chickens – or ducks, as Narrow Gauge owner Jim Ellis had to tell one tenant – but regulations at Animas Park for Mobile Homes are silent when it comes to poultry.
The park’s legal representatives said Animas Park does not specifically preclude chickens, but management would handle any incidents on a case-by-case basis if the chickens were considered a nuisance.
But even the few chicken-permitting HOAs say a squawking banty just isn’t worth the trouble.
Scott Bridges, secretary and treasurer of the Rincon Ridge HOA, said the intimate six-lot community does not have a no-chicken rule written into the covenant, but “once you have them, you never want them again,” he laughed. “They’re just a pain to take care of ... and listen to. Coyotes want them really bad, so that brings them around, and then the cats and dogs are in danger.”
“They’ve been banned since the beginning of the community,” said Beverly Lawrence, who has been on the Edgemont Highlands HOA board since the neighborhood was built about 10 years ago. Only domestic house animals are allowed there, no livestock.
“Some people like chickens, some don’t. They make noise. It’s a little different if you live downtown, where people tend to be a little more tolerant of noise.”
Lawrence said she recalls only one buyer over the past decade who asked if chickens were allowed, and wound up purchasing a home anyway.
But others cry foul at many HOAs’ no-chick rule.
“We love our chickens,” said 17-year Durango Ridge homeowner Melissa Delio, speaking fondly of Henny Penny and Henrietta, who come when called either out of affection or baited by mealworms. “Some on the committee were saying ‘no chickens’ a few years ago. But we’re half a mile from the closest neighbor.”
Anyone harboring chickens within Durango city limits is required to obtain a permit to keep them, but HOAs can override that. Durango has 13 registered chicken owners, according to city code enforcement.
Code enforcement officer Shane Roukema said his department has received but one chicken-related complaint, which involved some rogue chicks escaping their enclosures to traipse through the neighbor’s yard.
But chicken talk has historically been popular in Durango. According to the city website, the City Council heard a complaint in 1917 about the foul odors emanating from a neighbor’s chicken coop. In 2009, the council registered a split vote allowing Durangoans to keep up to six hens in an enclosure protected from predators. Roosters over six months old are banned.
Former councilor Michael Rendon led the pro-chicken crusade in support of locally grown food, which was also Delio’s reasoning.
“The way food is going, you like to know what you’re eating,” she said. “We don’t eat our chickens, but we know where the eggs come from.
“And I had no idea how wonderful chickens are. We have had a few that every chance they get, they run into the house. They’re sweet and have personalities.”
Her two hens are spoiled on kale, Greek yogurt and Cheerios in addition to mash. Before Delio kept them enclosed, several were lost to coyotes. She said she intends to get more chicks in spring. But no roosters, out of respect for neighbors who don’t want to wake with the sun.
jpace@durangoherald.com
