CAIRO — Regulations regarding chicken houses in Grady County will remain unchanged following a 3-2 vote Tuesday by county commissioners.

Commissioner June Knight’s motion to amend ordinances increasing restrictions on chicken house locations from 200 feet from right of ways and 1,500 feet from neighboring houses to 500 feet and 2,000 feet, respectively, was defeated by commissioners Keith Moye, Phillip Drew and LaFaye Copeland.

The issue had been the subject of a special workshop meeting last week, where commissioners were deadlocked 2-2 on the matter while Copeland was absent due to the recent death of her husband. County Administrator Buddy Johnson said the issue would be revisited this week, with Copeland telephoning into Tuesday’s meeting to break the tie.

Copeland said she didn’t believe the proposed alterations would make a significant difference.

“If chicken houses wanted to come in, they would get some extra land from somewhere,” she said. “I feel like right now, with COVID-19 going on and a pandemic, we need all the revenue we can get.”

The deeper issue, Copeland said, is zoning, which can be reviewed at a later date. Moye and Drew argued at last week’s workshop that the county should rely upon the state Department of Agriculture to regulate the matter.

Commissioner Ray Prince, who seconded Knight’s motion for the proposed changes, said that avenue was not likely to lead to satisfactory results.

“I just feel like the state is not going to get involved any more than they have to,” Prince said. “I’ve seen them sit for years on things, and I can tell you that’s how it’s going to work.”

Other common complaints about the chicken houses, such as their smell, cannot be rectified through state action, Prince said.

Commissioners also considered eliminating verbiage in the county’s ordinances which states that poultry operation exhaust fans should be pointed away from residential dwellings “whenever possible.” The proposed change, which ultimately was not approved, would have ensured that exhaust fans could not be pointed at dwellings at all, though Prince said the change would not have made a significant difference for nearby residents.

Tuesday’s vote also means that a moratorium on the construction of new chicken houses, initially put in place by the commissioners in March and renewed in May, has been lifted. A separate vote to extend the moratorium, which was already set to expire Tuesday, would have taken place had Knight’s motion passed.