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Article Courtesy of The
Pensacola News Journal
By Tom McLaughlin
Published October 20, 2022
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Residents of the sprawling Holley By The Sea subdivision are crying "fowl" over
recent steps by their homeowners association to limit, and some think eliminate,
the keeping of chickens.
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There are about 100
residents among the 3,500 or so living in Holley By The Sea
who own chickens, according to resident Mark Chapman. He and
his wife started raising them in 2012 after reading an
article about backyard chickens in Pensacola. At present
they care for four birds.
"My chickens are pretty quiet. All my neighbors know I have
them, since we share eggs with them, and I'm pretty vocal
about it on our neighborhood Facebook page," he said.
"Chickens really are pretty quiet, they don't make any more
noise than a cat or a dog."
Chapman said there are also no problems in Holley By the Sea
with poorly maintained coops or unpleasant odors emanating
from them.
"Chicken owners are very conscious about maintaining their
coops. We want our chickens to stay healthy," he said.
Chicken ownership had not been a problem until fairly
recently, Chapman said, when the latest board of directors,
headed by board president Bryan Howell, decided to make it
one.
Chickens belonging to Holley By The Sea residents Mark and
Karen Chapman forage for insects in the couple's yard
Thursday. |
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Mark Chapmn, a longtime resident of the Holley By The
Sea subdivision in Southern Santa Rosa County, tends to his chicken
Thursday Residents fear their homeowners associationis seeking to
limit or possobly ban chickens from the neighborhood.
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"The HOA tried to create a rule to limit the numbers before we all showed up en
masse," Chapman said. "We thought we had killed it."
The board's latest tactic appears to be limiting the size of the chicken coops
people can have in their yards, said Chapman, the only chicken owner willing to
speak on the record.
In
a statement to the News Journal, Holley By the Sea General Manager April Salazar
declined on the board's behalf to comment on the chicken issue.
"The board of directors cannot individually speak on an item that has not been
approved by the entire board," Salazar said. "At this time there is nothing the
association would be able to report on the item."
A subdivision resident, identified on Facebook as Allison Watson, was ordered at
a Thursday meeting to reduce the size of her chicken house to 64 square feet and
lower its roof to no higher than 6 feet.
Chapman said he stood up at the meeting to protest the board's treatment of
Watson, because the same group had given him a variance to keep his coop roof at
7 feet.
According to Chapman and other chicken owners, who converse with one another on
various Facebook pages, Howell has made statements to the effect he wants to ban
chicken ownership outright within Holley By The Sea. A Nov. 8 meeting has been
scheduled to discuss the issue.
Chapman said he's not sure why, if the board intends to ban chicken ownership,
it is insistent on regulating coop sizes. And he's not sure what is motivating
the board of directors to move against the chicken owners in the first place.
"Since about 2019 these people, quite frankly, seem hell bent on creating rules
to tell us how to live our lives," he said.
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