Chickie will not be moved. The prize-winning red rooster owned by a family on Mayflower Lane in Vineyard Haven was given permission Thursday to remain in the yard by the zoning board of appeals, ending a protracted neighborhood dispute.

At a largely procedural hearing Thursday, the board a granted a permit based on a compromise worked out between town counsel from Koppelman & Paige, P.C., and George Davis, a lawyer for Chickie’s owner Jessica Seidman.

The quid pro quo: Chickie the champion pet rooster can stay, but he cannot be replaced upon death.

Based on a site visit the board instructed Daniel Seidman, Jessica’s father, to plant more vegetation to hide the rooster coop from the street, as a condition of the permit. Mr. Seidman pledged to comply, ending a battle which began in 2006 with a neighbor’s inquiry.

On the face of it Chickie’s plight was a hyper local permitting issue, but the rooster fracas came to symbolize opposing Vineyard lifestyles of rural tradition and suburban modernity, and prompted a flood of correspondence to this newspaper during 2007. The case goes back to January 2007 when the board granted a permit for Chickie, but ruled that the owners remove the bird from the property.

At the meeting letters were read from roughly equally sized cohorts of neighbors opposing and supporting the presence of the rooster.

Noisy crowing, threat to property values and possible rodent presence were among the fears regarding Chickie’s continued presence.

The Seidmans appealed, taking the decision to the superior court. Following legal negotiations a deal was struck and the case was remanded to the zoning board.

By dint of its nature the compromise has left no party entirely satisfied.

“I don’t understand though why the zoning board made the decisions, it’s different from all the other cases,” said Mr. Seidman.

Zoning board administrative assistant Laura Barbara said the resolution was accepted as the most expeditious and practical.

“The lifespan of the bird is five to six years,” she said. “And this bird is already six. They decided for the sake of the town and the neighbors, and to save time, to let it stay with them till death.”

Zoning board member Jeff Kristal simply said that all cases were considered on an individual basis.

In an e-mail to the Gazette, neighbor Sheila DeCosta pointed out that Mr. Seidman was an associate member on the zoning board of appeals when the issue first arose and argued that he should have been fully aware of the regulations regarding permitting.

“He clearly knew what the town’s rules were at the time,” she wrote. “He also moved into a development that has an association with bylaws that say ‘no fowl’ as he sat on the board of directors telling all his neighbors the rules and seeing to it that they were enforced, never mentioning that he had a rooster and chickens on his property.

“If everyone did what Dan has done why should the towns have any laws? Why should anyone give up time to run for all of these boards? If he wanted to live a certain way that’s fine, why move to a development with an association agreement and then do what you want without regard for your neighbors?”

Despite his reservations Mr. Seidman acknowledged that is a good thing is Chickie will not be evicted from his coop.

“I mean it would be nice to go on raising hens especially in this day and age of slow food and so on. But yeah we’re happy with the end result, he gets to stay.”