Residents voice concerns about proposed chicken houses, warehouse rezones
Rezoning debates dominated the Oglethorpe County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday, with the first four items on the agenda taking up the majority of the more than three-hour meeting.
More than 50 people filled every chair, lined the back of the room, and more looked in from the adjacent meeting room and foyer.
The BOC voted 4-0 (with Commissioner Howard Sanders recusing himself due to a conflict of interest) to table the vote on Vinh Tran’s request to build poultry houses on property on Centerville Road.
He owns land that includes four chicken houses and would like to rezone a second plot to build 12 chicken houses.
Public comment on this issue lasted nearly an hour.
David Jordan, a lawyer for Tran, described the potential economic benefits of the new houses and claimed that Tran had mitigated several disputes with his neighbors.
“They’re just asking to use their property as an economic engine,” Jordan said. “That’s a million dollar-plus investment to the economy.”
Daniel Rotberg, a farmer who lives next to Tran’s chicken houses, disagreed that the disputes had been resolved, particularly regarding the runoff from the four chicken houses.
“I’ve got no issues with anybody who wants to have chicken houses, as long as it’s legal, legitimate and doesn’t affect their neighbors,” Rotberg said. “Unfortunately, for the last three years, this hasn’t been the case.”
Rotberg and other neighbors claimed Tran had used machinery throughout the night, had let his dogs run free, killing one of Rotberg’s ducks, been unavailable to address complaints and had not properly addressed runoff, which floods surrounding properties.
“We don’t need neighbors like this who do not care about their neighbors,” Rotberg said. “Whoever lives downstream of (Tran) is getting the sludge, the slurry, the dead chicken I found. We don’t want to destroy our environment.”
Adrea Slay, a University of Georgia vet student with a Ph.D. in poultry medicine, advocated for the poultry industry, but opposed Tran’s rezone due to its effects on the environment.
“Runoff from poultry houses that are improperly managed contains heavy metals like lead, copper and zinc,” Slay said. “It’s important that we have healthy ecosystems and that we do agriculture the right way, and it’s very clear from previous anecdotes that (Tran) is not interested in doing that.”
Jordan defended Tran’s rezone request following the opposing voices, claiming all of the paperwork for the rezone requests follows the ordinances and that it would be prejudicial to deny the request based on Tran’s character or past actions.
“He has met the ordinances, and I totally agree with that,” Commissioner Andy Saxon said. “At the same time, we represent the people of this county. It’s obvious that there have been some violations.”
In another rezone request, the BOC voted 4-1 to approve Jamie Allgood’s request to subdivide a parcel into smaller lots along Lakeview Drive, along with the deed restrictions of the 75-foot buffer and no further subdivisions.
Commissioner Tracy Norman opposed.
Community members also spoke strongly against the proposal and feared construction runoff would ruin their lake and machinery could damage a dam on Lakeview Road.
Allgood assured the property would only be divided into four lots, all of which are for single-family homes and are at least 5 acres.
He also promised a 75-foot buffer to avoid construction near the creek that feeds into the lake, which is wider than the required 25-foot buffer. He also said construction equipment would likely use Lakeview Drive, not Lakeview Road, which would avoid any damage to the dam.
A rezoning request from Andy Barrs was unanimously denied for his planned warehouse and self-storage property on Wallace Meyer Road, near Highway 78 in Arnoldsville. In order to build on it, he wants it rezoned to B2 Highway Business.
“It’s not a highway road, and we don’t want a highway road,” said Patty Bearden, a resident of Wallace Meyer Road, which is unpaved. “We want it to stay small and livable.”
Commissioner Will Brown, who represents the Arnoldsville area, introduced the motion to deny.
“My view is: business on a dirt road — no,” he said. “I don’t want to pave any dirt roads.”
The BOC unanimously approved a truck ordinance, which creates a new list of roads 18-wheelers can’t use.
Heavier trucks tear up smaller roads that are used as cut-throughs.
“(Cut-throughs) do a lot more damage to those roads than you really need to,” Sheriff David Gabriel said. “That’s the whole reason behind this ordinance — to save money on roads. Trucks tear roads up; that’s just the truth of it.”
In other news, the BOC:
- Began the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, alongside the normal prayer.
- Tabled a request by William Radford to rezone his Dudley Farm Road property from AR to R1 to subdivide three lots.
- Unanimously approved a request by James Smith Jr. to rezone his Elton Stewart Road property from agriculture residential to single-family residential.
- Tabled a request from Jeremiah Peters to rezone his Red Oak Run property from AR to R1.
- Unanimously approved a request from Edward Sanders to rezone his Union Point Road property from A2 to AR.
- Approved 4-0 (Commissioner Howard Sanders recused) a request from Howard Sanders, the commissioner’s father, to rezone his Stephens Salem Road property from A2 to R1 to split for family.
- Unanimously approved a request from Jason Thaxton to rezone his Thaxton Wynne Road property from A2 to R1 to split for family.
- Approved alcohol permits with a vote of 4-1, with Clark dissenting, for Bark and Wine on May 31 at Historic Smithonia Farm.
- Heard Saxon propose a potential new noise ordinance to limit excess firearm noise.