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?
—
Please Friend me on Facebook and follow my Tweets on Twitter