Horry County leaders voted Tuesday 6-6 on an ordinance that would allow people to have chickens in their back yards.
Though the vote resulted in a tie, the ordinance fails and people will not be able to apply with the Board of Appeals to raise chickens.
Several members of the community addressed council. Some wanted chickens and others say they cause problems and destroy property values.
The mother of a boy with allergies who first asked council to consider this ordinance says she’s now looking to go above Horry County Council for help.
“I have two older children who can eat anything and everything, but my youngest cannot, and it is his health that I have to put first. So, really in all honesty, they can vote against the chickens but one way or another, it will happen,” said Whitney Craig, who asked council to consider the ordinance.
Council member Al Allen told the public there are bigger problems in the county than chickens like the shortage of police officers and the county’s heroin epidemic.
“We’re facing so many issues and stuff that this council needs to be attentive to besides an ordinance such as this,” said Horry County Council Al Allen.
Allen says this issue could be brought back to council in the future, but because council was split in the vote tonight he doesn’t feel like there would be enough support for it to ever pass.
