COLUMBIA - Local governments would lose power to limit how close poultry operations can be to residences under a bill that won key approval Thursday in the Senate.
During the past few years, 13 counties have passed zoning laws that restrict poultry operations with setback requirements.
The so-called "right-to-farm" bill prohibits counties from passing zoning laws on farms that are stricter than the rules set by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
South Carolina Farm Bureau pushed the legislation.
People are moving from cities to country settings, drawn by the "open spaces, pretty fields and wildlife," said Gary Spires, the Farm Bureau's lobbyist who led efforts on the bill. "When they get out there, they don't like the agriculture that's going on."
And there is a lot of farming in South Carolina.
The state has 1,107 egg-laying farms, 426 broiler farms, and 331 turkey farms. Those poultry operations account for three of the state's 10 largest cash crops, with chickens raised for dinner tables at the top of the list followed by turkeys, at No. 3, and laying chickens at No. 9, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"I think it's unfortunate that certain subdivisions of state government - certain local subdivisions - enacted aggressive, more restrictive ordinances than state DHEC regulations," said Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens. "Several counties enacted ordinances that were so stringent, that were so restrictive, that it forced the issue here this year."
"They were more than burdensome. They were intolerant, especially of the poultry industry," Mr. Verdin said.
The Senate agreed to a handful of changes Thursday that included requiring plants to be put between poultry operations, limiting the size of slaughterhouses and making it clear that the Town of Lexington can work with a slaughterhouse operation in city limits to move out into Lexington County.
The bill could get third reading and be on its way to the House next week. The House passed similar legislation two years ago, but it died in the Senate.
The South Carolina Association of Counties tried to stop the bill. "The downside to this, as I see it, is that what we have done is we have bypassed the local land use planning and moved it to Columbia," said association lawyer Russell "Bo" Shetterly.
"This reduces the ability of local governments to react" to their citizens, he said.
Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, led much of the fight against the legislation the past two days on the Senate floor.
As the final voice vote approached, Mr. Leventis said the "bill is bound to come back to haunt us" because the Senate didn't balance the problems agriculture has with the problems neighbors of poultry operations might face.
