Stephens Co. Commission Approves Poultry House Requests

Stephens County Commissioners will allow a plan for eight poultry houses on a Freeman Creek Road property to move forward.

Tuesday, county commissioners approved a re-zoning request for William Hutto at 140 Freeman Creek Road to re-zone the land Agriculture Intensive, a conditional use permit to allow the poultry farm operation, and a variance request to allow two of the proposed eight chicken houses to be closer to a neighboring property than the land use ordinance permits.

Hutto will be required as a condition of the county’s approval to have a buffer of trees around the property. Also, the approval limits him to no more than eight houses and would require him to come back to the commission if he wanted to add any more additional houses.

The vote on the re-zoning request was 4-1 in favor, while the conditional use and variance requests passed by a vote of 3-2.

Stephens County Commissioner Debbie Whitlock, along with Commissioners Dennis Bell and Michelle Ivester voted for all three motions.

Whitlock said she feels that re-zoning this property is an appropriate decision.

“We are talking about 107 acres of open space and farmland that is bordered by other AI (Agriculture Intensive) property and had it not been for a mistake, it would have been AI property,” said Whitlock. “There are poultry operations that have been in operation for years there prior to Mr. Hutto buying this property.”

Whitlock also said not passing these would bankrupt the Hutto family.

She also noted that while some neighbors oppose the plan, other neighbors support Hutto and added Hutto has extensive experience in poultry farming.

As for Bell, he said he sees both sides of the issue, but made the motion to allow the plan to go forward.

Meanwhile, Ivester had previously announced she would recuse herself because her real estate firm had properties listed in the immediate area of Hutto’s property.

However, she said she has spent the last weeks re-considering that.

“I have given this a lot of thought over the last couple of weeks and lost a lot of sleep over this,” said Ivester. “I just think, given the importance of this issue and because I am not representing any direct party, I have decided that I will take a vote tonight. I think it is my obligation as a commissioner. I was voted in by the citizens and I think I owe it to the citizens to vote on this topic.”

In voting in favor of the requests, Ivester said she sat on the committee that drew up the land use ordinance and in her opinion, these requests meet that ordinance.

Commissioner Stanley London voted for the re-zoning request, but voted against the other two requests.

He said that he is not opposed to allowing chicken houses, but does feel that eight is too many.

The lone commissioner to vote “no” on all three motions was Dean Scarborough.

He said he voted against it after looking at the area for the proposal and examining the zoning ordinance and deciding the poultry houses were not a fit for that neighborhood.

“I rode every street, every road and was very surprised at the amount of residential in the area,” said Scarborough. “It is predominantly residential with some small farming operations. Those properties that are even listed in the zoning map as AI, none of those have a farming operation of the significance of the one being proposed had. There is not an operational farm that is that size.”

This vote followed weeks of discussion and debate over the proposal, culminating in a public hearing that lasted more than two hours back on February 14.

Supporters noted that poultry houses have traditionally been on the property and cite the economic benefits of poultry farming.

However, opponents cited odor concerns, health and safety concerns, and concerns about diminished property values.

Supporters said that a well-managed farm would not have any odor or health concerns and Whitlock says there is no evidence property values would decrease.