Photos: 1966 chicken ordinance gone afoul in Bishop

Bishop resident Allison Hallenbeck, 18, lets Peaches perch on her head as she holds Tut. The teen’s interest in chickens began in fourth grade in 4-H. Her family now has five. A November ballot measure, if passed, would allow up to four.
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Bishop City Councilwoman Laura Smith and her husband, Greg Smith, watch their two chickens frolic in their frontyard. Because another council member (the mayor, in fact) admitted to once keeping chickens, the panel decided it could not rule on the issue of whether a 1966 ordinance allows residents to keep chickens at their homes. The issue will go before voters in November.
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Horses graze in Bishop. After some residents complained about people in the main town keeping chickens, citing a 1966 ordinance that prohibits “any poultry or animal yard” within 100 feet of a residence, a chicken-owning City Council member contended that the ordinance applied to commercial chicken yards, not pets.
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Tanner Van Tessell, 10, Dillon Ellis, 11, and Robert Ellis, 13, tube down a Bishop creek. The rustic scene underscores a question at issue in the chicken flap: Is Bishop city or country?
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Bishop resident Pete Watercott, 58, checks on the chickens in his backyard coop. He and his wife, Kathryn Erickson, own seven chickens. If a November ballot measure passes that would allow townsfolk to keep up to four chickens or rabbits, it’s unclear whether excess critters would be grandfathered in.
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Bishop Councilwoman Laura Smith shows off an egg from one of her two chickens. She contends that the 1966 ordinance limiting chickens applied to commercial yards, not pets.
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Pete Watercott chases a loose chicken outside his backyard coop in Bishop. “A lot of people like myself feel we’re a rural community,” said Pete Watercott. “It’s what I love about Bishop.”
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Main Street in downtown Bishop, where natives and newcomers -- which include some 30-year residents -- are feuding over whether it’s permissible for townsfolk to keep chickens.
See full story  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)