A judge this week nullified a county ordinance limiting the
number of crowing fowl on properties because supervisors improperly
adopted the law in March 2006, according to court documents. His
decision was the culmination of a lawsuit filed by a local rooster
ranch owner on Lone Tree Road who claimed he had been targeted by
the law’s inception.
HOLLISTER
A judge this week nullified a county ordinance limiting the number of crowing fowl on properties because supervisors improperly adopted the law in March 2006, according to court documents. His decision was the culmination of a lawsuit filed by a local rooster ranch owner on Lone Tree Road who claimed he had been targeted by the law’s inception.
Judge Steven Sanders ruled against San Benito County in the suit, filed by Frank Del Carlo, in a trial proceeding Monday at the San Benito County Courthouse.
The county board of supervisors approved the ordinance three years ago. It limited the number of crowing fowl on a property to fewer than 10 and only one per acre, with more than six requiring an administrative permit and more than 10 needing a conditional permit from the planning commission.
The issue first came up after neighbors near Del Carlo’s Lone Tree Road property, which has held more than 200 roosters at a time, had complained about the noise.
Sanders ended the quarrel, at least for now, by ruling on Monday that supervisors improperly approved the ordinance by adding a provision allowing the county to physically enter such properties “without prior consent,” Del Carlo told the Free Lance following the ruling.
Del Carlo noted how the litigation has cost him nearly $50,000 in legal fees – while he switched attorneys last year from Hollister-based William Marder to Monterey-based Neil Shapiro.
“I just wanted to raise my chickens on Lone Tree, and I think I’ve achieved that,” Del Carlo said.
County Counsel Shirley Murphy did not immediately return a phone call before publication.
For the Free Lance’s 2008 story on the Del Carlo lawsuit, go to www.freelancenews.com/news/236785-crying-fowl.
For an expanded version of this story, see Tuesday’s edition of the Free Lance.
