Push to allow Irmo homeowners to keep a few chickens stymied

The push to let homeowners in Irmo keep a few chickens was cooped up Tuesday.

Town Council members settled on a one-year trial but balked when it came time to actually lift the bird ban entirely.

“I am very disappointed in this outcome,” said Tony Oravec, spokesman for Hens for Irmo.

The split decision suggests the proposal won’t be revived, Mayor Hardy King said. “There’s no sense in spending more time on this,” he said. “It’s pretty much dead.”

The setback came after council members tentatively settled on rules that would be in force during the trial period. Those guidelines include an annual fee of $100 that supporters call excessive as well as varying distances on how far coops must be from homes, swimming pools and other yards with chickens.

“This is way too complicated,” Councilman Barry Walker said. “It’s too restrictive for people who want to do this.”

King agreed the standards probably would limit significantly how many homeowners would opt to keep the birds.

Irmo is the last holdout among major Midlands municipalities to the idea.

The latest setback came after complaints from some residents that chickens don’t belong in neighborhoods in the town of 12,000 residents.

“I like most types of farm animals if they are raised on a farm,” homeowner Elmer Danko said.

Supporters want to be allowed to keep up to four hens in enclosed coops in backyards, with roosters banned.

Keeping a few hens gives families a connection to farming as well as providing eggs for meals and compost for gardens, they say.

It’s unclear how many homeowners in town would be able to keep chickens since development restrictions or homeowners associations ban the birds in several neighborhoods.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 10:02 PM with the headline "Push to allow Irmo homeowners to keep a few chickens stymied."