‘Chicken Lady’ Ruffles Neighbor’s Feathers Again

A Redondo Beach orthodontist who bought property for a dream house only to discover his neighbor had a yard full of pet poultry has asked the City Council to revoke the wild animal permit they issued two years ago to the woman known locally as “The Chicken Lady.”

In a letter to the council, Thomas R. White argued that his neighbor, Roseanne Smith, displayed “contempt for the law” last year by keeping several dozen chickens on her South Irena Avenue property in violation of a city resolution that allowed her to keep only six.

“The Chicken Situation,” as White and his wife call it, has gone on for more than three years, since the Whites bought the lot next door to the seaside cottage where Smith has lived all her life. Anxious to snap up the corner lot for their planned five-bedroom Mediterranean house, the Whites did not realize until after they had moved in that the yard next door was full of roosters and hens.

When neighborly appeals to remove the birds did not work, the Whites went to City Hall to voice objections about the noise and smell. The council passed a resolution in 1987 limiting Smith’s brood to six birds, but soon the yard was again full of chickens, and the Whites took Smith to court, where she was convicted and placed on two years’ probation.

In December, after the Whites discovered Smith’s yard was again filled with birds, they reported the probation violation, and Smith was ordered to get rid of her flock altogether. The court commissioner noted, however, that his ruling would be moot after Smith’s probation ends Friday, and she said at the time that she would simply leave the birds with a friend until that time, when she would bring them home.

White stayed at the City Council meeting Tuesday until almost midnight to plead his case, but the council, faced with a heavy agenda, tabled his request until next month.

“It is ironic that this somewhat frivolous issue has grown out of proportion and has proven so difficult to resolve,” White’s letter said. “But my neighbor’s repeated non-compliance with the decisions of the City Council and her contempt for the law have made this a test case.”

Smith, however, said that on Friday she will bring home the six chickens she originally was permitted to keep and will continue to resist the Whites.

“Sure, I’ll go back to City Hall if they want,” she said. “But I can’t understand why those people would be so upset over a few pets.”