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Politics & Government

Chicken Fan Fights City Hall

After being cited for violating Coronado's ban on backyard fowl, Leslie Crawford decided to stand up for others who have coops. The council will discuss the matter Tuesday.

Leslie Crawford and her two white-leg hens have a good deal going. In exchange for a little feed and a cozy coop in an island paradise, the snowflakes, as she calls them, provide her with two fresh eggs a day.

After eight months, the hens have produced more than 450 eggs. This was more than her family of three could consume, so Crawford began sharing her bounty with friends and neighbors.

Dispite her generosity, one neighbor objected to the hens and complained to the city. "We call him chicken little," she said.

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Now the city has charged her with violating its ban on backyard chickens, which came into effect in 1997.

The city has not been unsympathetic. Crawford said City Manager Blair King suggested that she come before the City Council to make her case during public comment. 

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She did. Her pun-laden plea – “I am aware that I have run afoul of the law” – won the heart of at least one councilmember. Barbara Denny placed the matter on Tuesday’s agenda.

In a letter, Denny pointed out that “chickens provide low-cost healthy sustenance in the form of eggs, as well as pesticide-free insect removal.” She went on to suggest that “It may be time for our Coronado code to allow for chickens.”

She also did a little research and learned Coronado and Imperial Beach were the only two cities in San Diego County that have banned backyard chickens. Imperial Beach lifted its ban three years ago.

A lifelong horticulturalist, Crawford has incorporated the hens into the rhythms of her garden. She feeds them snails, slugs and non-meat table scraps along with their feed. They in turn enrich her compost bin, which sits inside their coop.

While she thinks it’s important to eat local, Crawford was motivated more by curiosity than conviction.

“I love learning and a wanted to learn about chickens,” she said. “I also knew there was a chicken underground.”

It’s not clear how many are part of this underground. Jenny Porteilli had free-range chickens for two years and no neighbors complained. She also says that she personally knows two other families who have chickens.

She gave up trying to keep hens, however, because of her concern for their welfare.

"Possums became an issue," she said. After she lost a hen to one, she decided to give the other to a family in Encinitas three weeks ago. “She’s happy in a happy place.” 

Portelli remains an advocate for backyard chickens and plans to write a letter to the council supporting Crawford.

As for Crawford, she is serious about letting the snowflakes live out their productive years in her yard, though has not lost her sense of humor about the cause.

“I want to keep it light, keep it fun,” she said. “They're just chickens after all.”

 

This story has been revised. Imperial Beach no longer bans chickens in households.

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