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Allow Backyard Hens

Let's make Barrie a sustainable city by allowing backyard hens for the purpose of household egg consumption.
Many major North American cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, New York, Seattle, Chicago and Los Angeles, together with Ontario communities such as Niagara Falls, Brampton, Newmarket,
and Guelph, allow the small-scale raising of hens. Now it's Barrie's turn to join this positive and growing trend.
Hens have existed in cities since the dawn of time an
d continue to thrive in communities around the world to this day. The benefits of raising them include:

  • Fresh, healthy and delicious home-grown eggs, free of pesticides and antibiotics;

  • Reduced municipal solid waste as hens consume table scraps and other organic waste;

  • Reduced backyard pest populations as hens consume weeds and bugs;

  • Opportunities to teach children about food sources and responsible animal care; and

  • The addition of great "poultry pets" to families -- hens are people-friendly, nonaggressive and always entertaining to watch.

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Sharon shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
under review  ·  AdminCity of Barrie (Admin, City of Barrie) responded  · 

The City of Barrie is in the process of creating a new comprehensive Zoning By-law, which will be designed to implement the vision and policies of Barrie’s recently adopted Official Plan.

Due to public interest, the new Zoning By-law proposes to establish zoning standards for chicken enclosures and use provisions for backyard chickens (see section 4.9).

To download the first draft of the new Zoning By-law and for full information, please visit BuildingBarrie.ca/zoning.

The first draft of the new Zoning By-law is open for public feedback online until April 28, 2023. Public meetings are also being held to gather feedback:

In-person Public Information Centre

An in-person Public Information Centre will be held on April 19 from 4pm to 7pm at the Barrie City Hall Rotunda (70 Collier Street). The public is welcome to drop in to provide feedback. No pre-registration required

Virtual Public Information Centre

A virtual Public Information Centre will be held on April 20 from 2–3pm. Please register in advance to attend.

City staff will collect public and stakeholder feedback from the first draft of the Zoning By-law and incorporate this into a second draft, which is planned to be released in summer 2023.

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  • J commented  ·   ·  Report

    glad to see your comment Joy, I was thinking the same thing. how has this been ignored for so many years? There are obviously responsible people interested in this and I really don't see how so many towns in our country can have chickens, even Toronto, but we can't?

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    Great idea joy , keep us posted , let us know what happened

  • Joy commented  ·   ·  Report

    Using this process has been very discouraging. Contacting ward councillors and letting them know that this has been ignored might be an option to move this along. I'm going to call the City to find out why this topic is not being addressed with so much interest.

  • Rod commented  ·   ·  Report

    I think it’s at the point now that we should just go ahead and do it. And as long as your neighbors don’t complain, it will be fine. As long as nobody goes crazy and gets too many birds we shouldn’t have any problems.

    Keep in mind it’s illegal to have more than 2 pets, and cats need to be on leash outside. I see plenty of people with 3 dogs and a cat and there are often cats loose in my garden, and I don’t see the city doing anything about that.

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    We need to push it some
    How

  • Don Komarechka commented  ·   ·  Report

    I know that City Council takes summers off, but this really needs to be addressed in 2019.

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    This is ridicules , been waiting for so long now???

  • Joy commented  ·   ·  Report

    Wondering why this request is seemingly being ignored? Its been "under review" since March without any updates from the City of Barrie.

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    When we will get any update ??

  • anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    This thread was started March 14, 2018, it has been under review with no updates since March 27, 2019. Its been over a year without any mention of it going to counsellor.
    I think contacting your local counsellor and requesting it be on the agenda ASAP is a good idea.

  • Rod commented  ·   ·  Report

    It’s moved forward before, and the answer was no. Maybe if we email our local counselor, it may excellent the process.

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    So when we suppose to get an answer ? Any idea ?

  • Kayla commented  ·   ·  Report

    Has there been a decision made yet? It appears to be a yearly request?

  • Wasim commented  ·   ·  Report

    Not confirmed yet , i have been waiting for the answer aswell

  • Victor commented  ·   ·  Report

    How many hens are allowed in a medium backyard?
    Thanks

  • Mark Ingram commented  ·   ·  Report

    I really hope that the city allows this, council should support this suggestion.

  • Sharon commented  ·   ·  Report

    It would be nice to see this topic go to Council before Summer 2019. I"m wondering how long it takes for the Moderator, City of Barrie to place this topic "under review" so we can move forward with this item?

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