Poultry House Debate Returns Before Stephens Co. Commission Tonight

Proposed chicken houses for a Freeman Creek Road property are back on the agenda for today’s meeting of the Stephens County Commission.

The county commission meets today at 5:30 p.m. at the historic Stephens County Courthouse in downtown Toccoa.

On today’s agenda, commissioners are expected to again discuss William Hutto’s requests that center around putting eight poultry houses on his property at 140 Freeman Creek Road.

Commissioners have on the agenda Hutto’s rezoning request to make the property Agriculture Intensive rather than Agricultural General-Residential for the poultry farm, his conditional use request to have a poultry farm operation on the property, and a variance request from Hutto for two of the chicken houses to allow them to be closer to a neighboring parcel than the land use ordinance would currently permit.

At their last meeting, commissioners voted to table these requests for further discussion after a public hearing that lasted more than two hours during which people on both sides of the issue spoke.

Supporters of the proposal point out that the property previously had active chicken houses and note the economic impact of poultry farming on the area.

Meanwhile, opponents say they are concerned about odor from the houses as well as the effect on health and safety and nearby property values.

However, supporters say that a well-managed farm would not have odor problems or have health concerns with some neighbors speaking out that they did not have issues when the houses were active previously.

On tabling the requests last time, County Commissioner Dennis Bell said it would give the commission time to digest all of the new information presented as well as try to get the two sides together to try to find middle ground.

Today’s 5:30 p.m. Stephens County Commission meeting is open to the public.