A Carriage Drive resident whose hobby is flying show pigeons was on cloud nine Thursday after the Zoning Board of Appeals let him keep about 50 of the birds in a coop behind his home.
“It’s something I’ve done all my life. It’s hard to imagine life without it,” Shafi Kalici said.
The town issued Kalici a cease and desist order in July, saying the keeping of the birds violated local zoning laws. Kalici’s pigeons were brought to the town’s attention after a neighbor complained that the birds defecated all over the neighborhood.
Kalici appealed the town’s order to the ZBA, where members decided the show pigeons could stay, under certain conditions. The birds can fly four days a week — but never on holidays, for example. The coop and the feed bin must be sanitary and vermin-free.
When the pigeons have chicks, he will have three weeks to donate the excess number of birds to others who share the hobby. He must allow enforcement officers to visit his property biannually, or whenever there is a complaint.
The ZBA members noted the town had received just one complaint — and that 50 pigeons seemed to be a reasonable number.
“I’m feeling a lot better now,” Kalici said.
ZBA members warned him not to fly the birds over neighborhood picnics.
“He has to have the decency as a neighbor to know that if there are 15 cars parked in front of someone’s house that day, they are probably having a picnic and he shouldn’t fly them,” said ZBA member Nicole O’Toole, who said she lives in the neighborhood and has never heard of a problem.
Zoning regulations say residents are allowed to keep a “very limited number” of pigeons and other types of animals for personal use, enjoyment — or consumption — so long as they are kept in a sanitary and non-offensive manner. The maximum number, however, is not defined, so it is up to the ZBA to make that decision on a case-by-case basis.
Carriage Drive resident Larissa Shackett was the neighbor who filed the complaint. She declined to comment when reached by telephone after Thursday’s meeting.