Hello. My name is Matthew Rubenstein. I live on Truesdale Drive. I'm focusing on, the part of the code that's being revised. It's section three article four district use regulations section two thirty dash 9.1. So if you wanna look at the code or not. So what I'm interested here is that and and and …

On chickens, the board learned that Croton's previous code allowed any resident to keep up to 25 fowl regardless of property size. The new law scales that number to lot size and requires coops be set back 15 feet from property lines — a change Village Building Department staff said will be far easie…

That's correct. And the language pertaining to where they could be penned was kinda confusing. So they made that clear by just saying no foul shall be penned or housed within 15 feet of any lot line. So that's clear. It's easy for, my department to administer that now.

the 15 feet? I guess so that there weren't chickens right on the proper line being penned, making noise, I guess.

The real fireworks came during the second hearing, on Local Law No. 3, a sweeping zoning code cleanup that would, among other things, slash the minimum distance for chicken coops from 50 feet to 15 feet from property lines and scale the number of fowl allowed based on lot size.

Well, and there's fecal matter associated with chickens, and you probably don't want that right on your property line if you share border with a neighbor. A little smelly.

So it's you have 10 foul versus 25 foul within 50 feet. So it had to get to that numerical threshold before it would apply, and that's why I think the ambiguity was. Yeah. And it's it was it also had to do with the commas. Right? Which is Yeah. Right. I mean, that's that's really what it had to do w…

Matthew Rubenstein of Truesdale Drive came to Tuesday's Board of Trustees meeting to challenge a zoning change that would allow fowl pens as close as 15 feet from a property line, down from the current 50 feet. Under the proposed rules, a quarter-acre RA-25 lot could house up to 10 fowl.

a certain number per size of your lot, I think, is very helpful. Yeah. So currently, you can have 25 whether you're RA five, RA 60, anything in between, you can have 25 chickens. So what we've proposed is, allowing it proportionally based on the size of your lot. So if you have a smaller lot, you wo…

Rubenstein also raised concerns about bird flu, noting he'd received a village notice about its prevalence the same day. He described a past enforcement failure under the previous engineering department, where a noise order was issued against a neighbor and later rescinded without action. "I didn't…

The WAC's recommendation now goes back to Mayor Brian Pugh and the Village Board of Trustees, which will consider the local law as part of its regular legislative process. Residents interested in the specifics of the fowl ordinance or other zoning definition changes should monitor upcoming Village B…

"That's 10 fowl within 30 feet of the home," Rubenstein told the board. "The fowl don't stay in the property if they're not fenced, and there's no requirement. You can see on a sunny day the cloud of dust coming from their pen, which floats onto your property."

So is what was added that the that it's scaling up based on the size of your property? Yeah. Previously, anybody in Croatan could keep 25 file?

=== HEADLINE === Chicken coop rules draw fire as village eyes $7.2 million capital plan === SUMMARY === A Truesdale Drive resident urged the Board of Trustees to reconsider a zoning change that would reduce the minimum distance for fowl pens from 50 feet to 15 feet from property lines, calling it a…

Truesdale Drive resident Matthew Rubenstein delivered a pointed five-minute critique. "Ten fowl, 15 feet from a neighbor's property line — that's problematic," he told the board, describing clouds of dust drifting from a neighbor's coop onto his property. He noted the irony of the village mailing bi…

Alright. Then moving on. Alright. So number four, where we talk about keeping a fowl, this mainly refers to chickens, I'm guessing. We added a table that states the maximum number of fowl is permitted and is based on lot size. So the bigger the lot size, essentially, the more foul you're allowed to …

I mean, it just section h here says all signs and components thereof shall be constructed in a manner and with such materials as shall not to cause the sign or components to constitute a hazard to pedestrians or vehicles. And then it says all all signs shall be kept in good repair and in safe, neat,…

Yeah. Listen. We can we can look at having different sizes for commercial versus noncommercial and see if that's something we can legally do or not. Yeah. I was gonna say just we what we were looking to do here was to try to streamline things because No. I know. It it's just you know, I mean, it it …

in the case of of Yeah. Looking at what an average size would be, then that that was put in there. And just okay. So that seems big to me. I'll say that. And then does the the 20 feet from the ground for

**What to watch for:** Budget work sessions are scheduled over the coming weeks — check the village calendar for department-specific dates. The board will consider final adoption of Local Law No. 3 at its next regular meeting, potentially with a revised fowl pen setback.