When Army veterans Ashleigh and Andy D’Anna decided to purchase property in the town of Lockport, they were looking for a place where they could live and raise animals for their own comfort and consumption.
While every other town they checked had a local ordinance barring the keeping of farm animals such as chickens and ducks in residential land zones, the D’Annas didn’t see one for the Town of Lockport.
Eventually they settled on a one-acre, L-shaped property on Old Stone Road. They bought it in January of 2023 and the following month they built a chicken coop and brought in the animals, much to the delight of their 2-year-old daughter Andi.
The D’Anna family’s happiness was short-lived. After a falling-out with their neighbors regarding the D’Annas’ goal to let part of their property grow wild, Ashleigh D’Anna said her neighbors complained to Town Hall about their farm animals.
“Agricultural use (farm animals/chickens)” of property zoned for single-family residential use is a violation of the town zoning code, according to a letter dated Aug. 28, 2023 and sent to the D’Annas by town Building Inspector Brian Belson.
The D’Annas were outraged. Ashleigh D’Anna said she called Belson and asked for the ordinance that restricts her use of her property. She claims Belson could not point to any text saying “no chickens” and that eventually he hung up on her, after saying to her, ‘you’re not listening to me.’”
But things settled down. No one came to enforce the apparent violation, and life went back to normal — for a while.
“They wound up just ignoring us and didn’t push the issue any further,” D’Anna said, “but when the chickens started getting out, the neighbors complained again.”
A second violation notice was sent, and D’Anna said that one stated a prohibition on keeping “free range” animals in an R-1 zone.
D’Anna doesn’t dispute the idea that livestock, including poultry, should be contained, but she’s still taking issue with Belson’s determination that she can’t legally keep chickens on her property at all. Again, she insisted, there’s no town ordinance stating that.
“If you have to put up regulations, there’s a proper way to do them,” she said.
Belson declined to speak with the Union-Sun & Journal about the D’Anna property on Thursday.
According to the town zoning code, allowable uses of R-1 property include gardening and horticulture for personal consumption, and allowable accessories include a barn, shed or utility structure, some detached garages, and some fencing — although barbed wire is prohibited.
Andy D’Anna said town supervisor Mark Crocker called him and Ashleigh about their situation this past Monday and suggested he could “bend the rules” for them.
Crocker did not respond to this reporter’s repeated attempts to verify what he said to the D’Annas.
Later this year, the D’Annas plan to seek admission to the county agricultural district that ends on the other side of Old Stone Road. If their property is admitted, then they would be free to raise chickens without being “harassed,” Ashleigh D’Anna said.
Inclusion of properties in a county agricultural district results from a recommendation of the county Farmland Protection Board and an affirmative vote by the county legislature.