A hobby farm for chickens, and possibly a pony, was approved on Evergreen Place in the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie.

The rural residential area is 1.5 miles south of Highway 52 off Kokomo Road.

Reeve Lewis Weiss says there are residents in the municipality who appreicate being able to raise animals for themselves.

"I believe in the past there always were many hobby farms," notes Weiss. "It's just that you didn't have to get a conditional use permit for them, but now because, in certain situations or locations it became important."

Weiss says, in this particular case, the conditional use application to allow animals was approved because there were no objections, some of the neighbours already have chickens, and over the fence is a small cattle operation.

The zoning by-law for the municipality states a parcel of land must be a minimum of five-acres to allow animals. Weiss says people who subdivide to a lot size smaller than five-acres are required to get rid of their animals, something he notes they havne't heard complaints about.

He adds the largest objection to a hobby farm he's heard from neighbouring properties is the noise from animals like cows.