2 Acre Rural-Residential Zoned Lots in an HOA - NO BACKYARD CHICKENS/PETS

Our HOA is located to the west of Berthoud, in rural Larimer County. All lots are zoned Rural Residential, and are all 2 acres in size. Each house is now estimated to be worth over $1MM dollars (a HUGE increase since people bought land/houses in 2004-2006).

A subcommittee of four neighbors, each with recent chicken-keeping experience here in Colorado, was formed to research local codes along the Front Range to see how other towns and HOAs have adopted rules regarding backyard chickens. By "backyard chickens," we mean 8 or fewer birds, HENS ONLY, on these 2 acre lots.

We liked Ft. Collins' method the best - scalable bird numbers by half acre lot size increments (eg 6 at 1/2 acre, 24 max at 2 acres). We proposed language regarding coop size and materials (hardware cloth instead of chicken wire to keep out smaller critters, food storage, covered run to protect from hawks, etc.), and we have a trash service weekly already, so didn't see waste becoming an issue. No egg sales/stands, and following all applicable noise ordinances. 5 households were able to hold up the discussion and accused us of running the place into the dumps because of all the damage allowing chickens (8 or fewer) as pets would cause.

People were already disgruntled because the architecture committee seems haphazard in enforcement and application of their own guidelines, and the Board pursues some complaints and not others, so a "Disband the HOA" movement started out of anger at the confusion so many were experiencing. The chickens catalyzed the conversation, but also got swept up into the whole deal, when all the (volunteer) subcommittee proposed was amending the current pet clause with regulations around backyard chickens (8 or less! no roosters!) on our large lots.

So now we know more than half (but fewer than 67% maybe?) are all for chickens in the manner we proposed, but the loudest households are vehemently anti. They're saying we'd attract predators (we already have deer and elk and rabbits, so whatever eats them is already here), and that we want other animals (we never said anything about other animals). They're sending emails to the community with false claims and inflated fear mongering. We are likely going to vote on it. Even though the county allows 50 birds/acre, we are hamstrung by sloppy documents that prohibit poultry, which were written 20 years ago because the country required covenants so the developer could sell the lots.

Where is a state law (similar to SB23-178) allowing us freedom of enjoyment and food production in our own lots?? We want to keep the neighborhood looking nice, and we want to work with our neighbors, but the handful of haters is preventing any modernization or flexibility between property owners.