The city still hasn’t decided if it’s OK for North Haven Gardens to sell live chickens at their nursery.
I spoke with North Havens general manager Leslie Halleck this morning, who tells a big chunk of the confusion comes from a zoning issue.
“When North Haven Gardens first opened, it was out in the country—but as the city expanded, it annexed this area and we were zoned as residential,” she told me. “That residential zoning has limited our businesses greatly.”
More on our conversation here after the jump.
If North Haven Gardens were zoned as retail, there would be no issue with selling live chickens.
“You can go sell live chickens in front of WalMart or Macy’s because those are zoned for retail. And other garden centers in Dallas are already doing this. Aggie Feed sells live chicks, too.”
Halleck’s challenge now is to convince the city that these chickens are an accessory to North Haven’s product line, which already includes chicken coops and feed.
Halleck says she’ll be sending the city some examples of other garden centers that are selling live chickens, so they can see how it’s done elsewhere. She’ll also be outlining some the guidelines they’d follow, like only selling adult hens.
“We would not sell chicks because you can’t tell the gender of those, and roosters are not allowed in the city. We’d be sure that we are only selling hens. We want to work with the city and make sure we’re following code compliance.”
Halleck will be sending that information over next week, and hopes to get a decision soon thereafter. I’ll keep you posted on that.
