Currently, the City of Whittier, Ca does not allow chickens on residential zoned properties without a conditional use permit.  Citizens are welcome to apply, but must pay the nearly $3,000 permit fee and go through a 3 month long permit process - which can still be denied.  Given this enormous hurdle, the City has effectively banned backyard chicken keeping.  At the very least, backyard chicken keeping has been effectively deemed a luxury for the privileged few with expendable income.  As grocery prices continue to rise, families are looking for alternative means of food security.  A strong local food economy via the likes of backyard chickens is one of those means.  Furthermore, backyard chickens can be an enormous resource for decreasing household organic waste, decreasing a city’s waste management costs and increasing a community’s sustainability.  The current municipal code of Whittier, Ca does not empower its community to live vibrant, healthy and sustainable lives, but imprisons the community within a paradigm of disconnection - a paradigm of profit over people.

Such rhetoric is intentionally inflammatory because the community of Whittier, Ca must wake up to the reality that changing this municipal code is not about desiring “exotic” pets.  Backyard chickens is a way we can enter into a practice of reconnection - reconnection with our food, reconnection with humanity’s place in this world, reconnection with our neighbors, reconnection with life.  If the municipal code is not changed to no longer require a conditional use permit for the keeping of chickens on residentially zoned lots, the community will be forced to live in one of three postures - resigned discontent, fearful opposition, or exodus.   In resigned discontent, residents wish for another life but think it only a dream that can never be actualized. In fearful opposition, residents live in defiance of the municipal code but do so secretly and in fear of being found out, furthering their disconnection from neighbor and community life.  Finally in the posture of exodus, residents relocate to a new community that is more friendly to their hope for a reconnected life.  None of these postures improve community life for the City of Whittier and it’s time that that change.

After discussing this with the Planning and Community Development Office of Whittier, it has become clear that Whittier officials have no intention of addressing this on their own.   Even though they admit that a number of community members have enquired about chickens and expressed a desire for this to change, they are not going to address it unless explicitly directed to by the City Council.   As isolated voices, we may be ignored or written off, but together we cannot be ignored.  By signing this petition you are telling City Council that you support a change to the municipal code that would no longer require a conditional use permit for keeping chickens on a residential zoned lot.  In supporting this change, you are supporting a trajectory of community health and reconnection.  Sign today and have your voice be heard!