City Chickens and Bad Neighbors

I want to preface this post by saying that I am not a Libertarian, nor do I want my commentary used to further the causes of unbridled capitalism and pillage of the earth.
But, that said:
I recently got this book from the library about raising chickens in the city. (In case you haven't heard, urban chickens are like oh-so-trendy now.) In this book, it listed the municipal codes for backyard chickens for every major American city. It really made our City Council look like a bunch of pansies for having this be SUCH an issue of contention, and then finally settling on a limit of 3 hens per household. That is very conservative, I found out! Many cities far larger than Olympia allow more hens than that, allow roosters, or have no limit whatsoever.
What a silly ordinance. People just love rules, don't they? There's hardly an issue that could come up between neighbors that doesn't have some city code written to settle it so that we don't have to be grown-ups. (I'm not going to expound upon that, cause I'm afraid if I think of one, pretty soon they will propose an ordinance to address it.)
Many people have large yards within the city limits of Olympia--arguably big enough for a small farm. We're talking about chickens here, not cattle! Far less noisy and smelly than most dogs. At least you don't need a permit, for God sakes.
I think there has got to be a conspiracy around this. They just don't want us producing our own food because it makes us self-reliant and happy. (Bad consumers.)
But by far the best city chicken code was in the fair city of New Orleans, where the only restriction on hen-keeping is that you obtain permission from all your neighbors. Hearing about this law really changed my world. I haven't stopped thinking about it for months.
We should get rid of all municipal code right now, and adopt this!!! "You may do whatever you choose, so long as your neighbor approves. Work it out, ya big baby."
I know, I know-you're thinking, "No way would I let my jerk neighbor decide what I can and can't do on my property."But which would you rather-let your neighbor govern your choices, or rely on the city government to make every single potentially annoying behavior illegal? Personally, I'd rather deal with the neighbors.
Order a "wherever chickens are outlawed, only outlaws will have chickens" bumper sticker.