meanwhile in the real world.

[sweetapogee]

172. I hesitate to weigh in on this one

My partner and I have chickens, we have had them for almost 20 years. You are correct that while something could be used to house chickens, that doesn't mean it is legal. Where we live, i'm on 4 acres in a rural area with some large farms literally just down the street.

My nearest neighbor's home is 500 feet away. We feel that having a good relationship with the neighbors is important so we keep our livestock neat and contained, limit ourselves to 1 rooster and give them eggs from time to time. But remember I'm in an area zoned for farming. Still, my township would cite us for code violations if we had a motor vehicle on our property that is not registered or insured. It doesn't matter that the motor has been removed or how noble the reason, a motor vehicle, visible to anyone (my neighbors or from the road) on my 4 acres that is not street legal and in good repair is going to get me a citation.

The situation described in the OP, noble as it is, on a 30 or 40 foot lot in a city is going to get noticed by the zoning office. The laws in that area I'm not familiar with but here it would not fly. I haven't consulted my crystal ball yet but my gut tells me that the OP would be doing herself a huge favor by cleaning up the site, reducing the number of chickens to about half (10 is enough given the size of the site) and constructing a wood shed to house the birds. One that looks nice! I think I read that there are 20 chickens there, a car is not enough room for 20 if that is the correct amount.

As a firefighter (Volunteer with pro-board certs), I would think that there would be required set backs to allow fire crews to access the two exposures next to the lot. You can do many things with a small parcel but you cannot do everything.

My guess would be that a homeowner in the City of Chicago would need a permit to construct a storage shed (or chicken coop/pigeon loft), we needed one back in our New Jersey day's. Penna no problem as long as it sits on the ground, with no foundation. I think it is left to the local governing body to decide that detail. So what, you take a car and convert it into a coop, how would that be different from a building permit perspective than having a pre-fab shed delivered to the site?

The thing about it is that by having a neat orderly area, it would enhance the neighborhood and be a good standard for others to follow. When many eyes are looking, much effort has to be made to keep things looking good. If the city allows one homeowner to have one junked car on their property, then what about the homeowner that has 5 or 10 cars? What about boats or campers converted to coops? How many chickens are too many? If chickens are OK, what about goats? Horses? Cows?

So IMO, the city is going to prevail on the car coop, that I'm reasonably sure of. They have to prevail because if they don't, then anyone could store anything on their property in the city and that's not going to happen. As far as runoff is concerned, you make a valid point CreekDog. And how that will become an issue is, if the city decides to really drop the hammer, they will contact the EPA. The EPA will take no prisoners. This is why the OP should tone it down, have a change of attitude and work with the city. Sorry if I offend anyone, it's not my intention. I hope she wins her battle but suspect that she will have to meet the city at least half way.