Sudbury neighbors squawk about chickens

It began with the roosters.

Elizabeth Sulkowski got a phone call from her new neighbors this past summer about the noise coming from the pen where she keeps her chickens and roosters.

It turned into a full-fledged dispute -- and a push by some farmers in Sudbury for a formal town body to represent their interests as the once-rural town becomes more suburban.

Sulkowski, 60, is appealing a zoning enforcement officer's ruling that she needs a special permit to keep poultry, something she has been doing since she and her family moved to Water's Edge Farm, a 3-acre property on Moore Road, in 1983.

Since it is smaller than 5 acres, Sulkowski's farm does not qualify for an exemption from local zoning rules.

At issue, she said in an interview last week, is whether a community that was once a farm town will keep the remaining farms it has or drive them away.

''More and more people will be required to apply for permits, and we'll be at the mercy of neighbors -- whether we can keep chickens, whether we can keep goats," said Sulkowski, who estimated that two dozen or more farmers in town raise chickens.

On the other side of the fence, the neighbors, John and Kelly Kavaler, who moved in on July 15, see it not as a way-of-life issue, but a quality-of-life issue. Kelly Kavaler, who noted that Sulkowski's chickens and roosters are kept right next to the property line, said they took their case to the town after being awakened repeatedly between 2 and 6 a.m.

A noise study by a consultant the Kavalers hired found the noise levels are unacceptable, she said.

Kavaler said she does not want her neighbors to get rid of their animals but simply to move them far enough away so they will not disturb her and her husband.

''We're all for supporting agriculture in our community. But having a farm does not give you the right to disrespect your neighbors and ignore the laws of the town," she said in a statement. ''The town of Sudbury needs to clearly define and enforce zoning laws."

Adam J. Sulkowski, Elizabeth Sulkowski's son, argued in an interview that the farm is a ''preexisting, continuous use" that goes back 150 years, and therefore should be exempt from zoning rules.

Such conflicts are among the reasons farmers in Sudbury plan to ask Town Meeting to create an Agricultural Commission, an advisory body that would comment on town issues that affect agriculture.

Such a commission is scheduled to be discussed at Tuesday's Board of Selectmen meeting.