Jan. 9—GOSHEN — Residents of Yellow Creek convinced the Elkhart County Plan Commission not to support a proposed zone map change in their area that would allow for a chicken farming operation.
Dale and Melissa Shupert purchased an old run-down property in the 23000 block of C.R. 26 in Concord Township with the hopes of developing it into a chicken farm, but their neighbors don’t appear to be in support of it. They’re so admittedly against it that dozens of those living on the roadway and the nearby neighborhoods attended Thursday’s plan commission meeting to speak out against the possibility.
The Shuperts already have around 150 chickens on the 10-acre parcel, which is currently zoned as R-1 Residential, and a few goats. They hope to transform the small operation into a 500-hen organic breeding farm, Dale said, to help with the food supply in the area.
“We believe that what we’re buying in the store probably isn’t what we need, so we’re trying to raise and breed a healthy chicken that can survive in this environment,” Shupert said.
Shupert said they’re currently in the middle of a breeding process and he anticipates to get started, it’ll take about 200 or 300 chickens.
On Nov. 19, a complaint was received for the farm animals living there in the residential district, which is surrounded by both residential and agricultural properties and bordering the city of Goshen limits.
Roger Evans, a neighbor and nearby farmer said the lack of fencing is a major concern for him, as he’s seen Shupert’s goats wandering already.
“Animals in danger, it’s a very, very busy road,” he said.
“We didn’t put a fence up because we assumed that the chickens would stay where the food is and that’s pretty much what they do,” Shupert said. “Once in a while, they go out towards the road.”
This led to the zone map change request, to legally allow agricultural uses. While planning staff found the request to be appropriate and the change to be the most valuable use of the property, neighbors had many concerns.
Residents expressed concerns about the rezone to A-1 that would allow the property owner to have up to 149,999 chickens, but Shupert said he’s only hoping to have whereabouts of 1,000 including the chicks that he’d offloaded to other operations quickly once they’re hatched.
“I don’t want a lot of chickens on my property because I don’t want the smell, and the more chickens I have — they’re all free range, so I have to move them around,” Shupert said. “So the more chickens I have, the more work for me. I’d just assume to hatch the chicks and then get them where they can be raised up if I can’t do it myself.”
Consideration of a set limit to the number of chickens the couple could have on the property were fruitless during the meeting. Shupert said he didn’t want more than 1,000 chickens on a free-range property, but he didn’t want to commit to a number for fear of breaking rules if he wasn’t able to sell as fast as chicks hatched.
Neighbors were also concerned about noise, smell, soil runoff into Yellow Creek, contaminants, and the chickens not being well contained on the property. The neighbors even banned together to create a petition, but many still chose to attend the meeting to speak in-person about their concerns.
Zoning Administrator Jason Auvil explained to the plan commission that when zoning was established in 1959 intended for the area to be developed into residential use but it never did.
“When you have that type of situation with the creek, you have mucky soils, you have potential for flooding, and it may have been another reason why this area never developed residentially because of the cost burden because of that, extending utilities, going across the creek. There’s a variety of reasons why it wasn’t developed residentially,” Auvil said.
To mitigate the rocky terrain, Shupert has been creating compost by burning donated wood, leaves, and manure. He said the heavy amount of burning neighbors are concerned with is temporary, but there will always be some.
“I will always need a compost pile,” he said. “I will always need leaves and wood chips. It’s a standard on an organic farm to increase your own fertilization not to buy it. I’m not really certified organic, but I don’t want that stuff in my food.”
Shupert also said the home on the property at C.R. 26 had been abandoned for the last 12 years and is currently unlivable. They intend to build a new home in the middle of the property, using the old house and barn as outhouses.
“We came into the property and we weren’t prepared for getting everything done,” Shupert admitted. “When we came here we thought of it as a situation to help the community, to be honest. We can give people good food and let them eat healthy food and somehow people viewed it the other way. They don’t stop and ask.”
There’s a lot of discrepancy between Shupert’s claims and the concerns of his neighbors. Shupert said his neighbors haven’t really spoken with him about their concerns and if they’d talked to him, they might be more understanding.
One example is the allegation that Shupert’s chickens may have caused a hawk problem in the area. Shupert admits the hawk problem exists but says he didn’t cause it, but he tries some small efforts to curb it.
“If you leave a dead chicken laying around, the crows will come eat it — hawks don’t like crows,” he said. “So then it keeps the hawks away. Once in a while, I tend to do that and it keeps the animals safe. But I don’t have massive dead animals.”
Shupert said normally when an animal does die, though, he burns it as part of his compost pile — which he learned at the meeting was illegal as open burning of animal carcasses is not permitted under the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.