Please note this request is limited to homeowners within the Spring Creek Farms North Subdivision located in Fort Collins, Colorado. Please ensure your name matches your legal name in the County Assessor website when signing for purposes of validating for the HOA Board.

The Spring Creek Farms North HOA holds Rules and Regulations stricter than the local municipal and county codes for urban agriculture, namely the keeping of backyard chickens and urban hives under article 6 of the architectural guidelines. These allowances were adopted by the City of Fort Collins to increase access for economic freedom in regards to food security. In light of recent events from inflation and the national egg shortage such allowances would help many residents with shrinking food budgets and lower the economic barrier for higher quality food. 

Under previous meeting minutes, which exceeded a year so have since been deleted, the HOA board stated any homeowner amendment request requires a majority of signatures from the homeowners. This requirement is not listed under the Policy for Establishing Procedures for Adoption and Amendment of Policies, Procedures and Rules. Article 3 only lists that amendments are under the sole power of the board. Format of signatures and majority is not defined but based on the executive board holding 3 members, we assume 67% qualifies as a majority. Operating under these reasonable assumptions we would need 51 signatures from the 76 homeowners.

Please support amendment of article 6 of the architectural guidelines to adhere to ordinance No. 097, 2013 adopted by the City of Fort Collins for the allowance of urban agriculture. In summary, this would allow homeowners to keep up to eight (8) poultry upon training and receipt of a permit from Larimer Humane Society with a required site inspection to ensure adequate housing is provided and set up at least 15 ft away from adjacent neighbors unless written permission is obtained. Backyard hives are restricted to two per yard and require adequate care to prevent swarms. If approved, this request also seeks to add additional language to require backyard beekeepers complete an introductory beekeeping course which can be found on the Colorado Beekeeping Association page, Spring Creek Gardens page, or CSU extension page. Well educated urban beekeepers can keep hives peacefully in neighborhood environments provided the right planning and steps are taken, such as set up by tall plants/structure to force them to fly high which prevents conflict with people and animals.