The Cobb County Board of Commissioners will allow racing pigeons for one year to a Cobb County man.
The commissioners decided Oct. 16 to grant the request of Hristo Kolev to reduce the required lot size for livestock - in this case, racing pigeons - from two acres to about one-quarter of an acre on Shallow Ridge Road near Cypress Court.
For the next year, the pigeons will be kept in a coop in the backyard.
Koley’s hobby means he releases the pigeons from 20 miles up to 2,300 miles away from their home coop in his backyard and they return to his home coop, “racing” to see who arrives first.
He received signatures in support of his hobby by 28 neighbors, including three of four adjoining neighbors.
Of his 50 pigeons, Koley said he is “lucky” to have five by the beginning of racing season due to the weather and birds of prey.
A member of the North Atlanta Racing Pigeon Club, Koley was joined by the club’s president Douglas Jones who also serves on the Executive Committee for The American Pigeon Museum and Library in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Of this “national hobby,” Jones said these pigeons are “selectively bred to carry messages for people.”
Cobb County Zoning Division Manager John Pederson said the staff was recommending “24 months to see how it goes” for this “oddball request” which he said is only the second request the county has received for racing pigeons.
Already the pigeons have been there “for a couple of years” and were reported anonymously as a code enforcement complaint, Pederson said.
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