Vidia Hurdowar loves animals, but the 9-year-old girl suffers from allergies and can’t have a typical pet such as a cat or dog.
So her folks found an animal she could keep and love without getting sick: chickens.
For two years, Vidia has raised four feathered friends: Summerset, Marene, Reddy and Island.
They eat from her hand and lay eggs that she shares with neighbors.
“I feel like they are my friends,” said Vidia, an honors student in 4th grade at Scott Elementary School.
“They let me hold them and pet them,” Vidia told me. She also described how they run the yard of her home near Austin Bluffs Parkway and Stetson Hills Boulevard in northeast Colorado Springs.
“I feed them and give them straw for their nests,” she said.
And she writes about them daily in her diary.
But now she’s contemplating life without her pets.
While city codes allow chickens, but not roosters, the covenants of the Heights at Templeton Homeowners Association don’t permit farm animals.
Doesn’t matter if they are pets, like Vidia’s chickens.
Doesn’t matter if their clucks are far more quiet than neighborhood dogs.
Someone complained and the HOA board has no choice, said Bob Hauptman, the president of the board.
“The problem is, the covenants are very definite,” Hauptman said, expressing sympathy for Vidia and her chickens. “They clearly state no farm animals.”
Hauptman said there was no problem until a neighbor saw the chickens and complained to the board.
“It’s one of those things,” he said. “We feel for them. Nobody knew they were there until they let them out.”
When the chickens were small, they stayed in a shed.
Then Vidia’s dad built a nice coop for them and fenced the yard so they could run around freely.
Pow! That newfound freedom led to the neighbor complaint and now an order from the HOA to evict the chickens.
“We didn’t realize we were breaking the covenants,” said Maya Hurdowar, mother of Vidia. “City regulations say you can have chickens. We didn’t know it was against HOA rules. We wrote them. But they said they are allowed to be stricter than the city law.
“We wrote them and asked them for a variance, for my daughter’s sake. These are her pets.”
The variance was not granted. On a 2-1 vote, the HOA board voted to enforce the covenants.
Hauptman said it’s better the chickens are going peacefully than the way another neighbors’ chickens disappeared.
“They coyotes got them,” he said. “One night they wiped out the chickens.”
Maybe there’s a place nearby where Vidia’s chickens would be welcome. And she could come visit them. Any takers?
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Almost all HOAs ban farm animals. There has to be a line drawn somewhere, especially with the liability involved. When it comes to HOA rules and covenants, there isn’t a special treatment exception clause.
I agree that HOAs are controlling and overbearing, but if you don’t like them, then get out (that’s what I did). I think HOAs need to be tough to deal with all the people who think they’re an exception to the rule.
Read the rules & covenants if you do move into a covenant community.
Tell the commie HOA folks to kiss off. There is NO NEED to take away the little grl’s pets, and the only reason they do so is to excercise their feeling of power. Exceptions may be made in anycircumstance, and this is one of those times. TELL THE COMPLAINING NEIGHBOR TO TALK TO ME, AND i WILL SET STRAIGHT THE RECORD, REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH IT HURTS HIM/HER…Damn jerks…
HOAs communities are communist communitits with little dictators running around ordering people to park in their garage and telling them how to live.
How about evicting the person who complained, instead?
I just got 4 chickens; Rhode Island Reds 10 days ago, and would be willing to take her chickens, but I would need her coop as well. I can’t have the rooster either, but I have a friends who lives in the county that may be willing to take in another rooster. I live in fairly close to her in the Vista Grande Terrace neighborhood, right behind Texas T-Bone.
If interested, feel free to email me back.
This isn’t about “taking away a little girl’s pets”. This is about a little girl’s family moving into an HOA covenant agreed upon community and then disregarding the covenants. To heck with covenants as long as it is one person’s interpretation of the covenants…right? This “chicken coop” appears to be crudely constructed…in a neighborhood with design guidelines. How would it be if all the neighbors wanted to construct chicken coops? If the homeowners want that, then circulate a petition to have the covenant against such, rewritten, then everyone will be happy. Demonizing the HOA Board accomplishes nothing. It is their charge to enforce the agreed upon covenants. It’s a choice people…if you don’t want covenants, don’t move into a community which has covenants!
I was saddened to read about the Templeton HOA’s ruling against Scott Elementary student Vidia Hurdowar and her chickens. I live in the same area but am not part of that HOA. My children also attend Scott and are in the third and fifth grades. We have three chickens in our backyard and a nice coop my husband built. We would be happy to take in Vidia’s chickens and she could come visit them anytime.
I have never lived in an HOA neighborhood and I never will. There are just too many horror stories about the power and control busy bodies for me to even consider such a place. Here is just one more story about one more HOA that is negative.
How can you call chickens “farm animals” when they are allowed by city regulations? The city doesn’t allow “farm animals” either, but we can have chickens! I’d argue this point. That chickens are not farm animals. They are regulated by the city under the same ordinances that regulate numbers of dogs and cats a resident can have on a property. This is ridiculous and I would fight it.
“Farm animals” is synonymous with “livestock,” which does not include chickens. The family could push for the HOA to define “farm animals,” and suggest they consider using city regulations as a guideline for regulations within the HOA, saying that the term “farm animal” does not inherently apply to chickens.
I advise that they get a clip board and gather signatures of neighbors who would support either following City Code with regard to farm animals or revising the covenant to allow certain animals such as chickens, ducks, and rabbits. Bring copies the petition to the HOA Board and attend the next meeting or request a special meeting.
Richard, in ref to your suggestion that the get a petition signed…it’s almost inmpossbile to do it in these communities now because they are so large. one community has 3000+ homes…it is impossbile to get 66% of them to agree on anything. and the 66% is required to have change…it’s daunting to change things.
In Washington State HOAs hold no water. Every time an HOA has gone to court they have lost and had to pay the defendants lawyer’s fees and usually damages. Personally, I would find out who complained and make their life a miserable hell.