Stephens Co. Commission To Meet Tuesday

Stephens County Commissioners are expected to make a final decision on a proposal for eight poultry houses on a Freeman Creek Road property at their meeting Tuesday morning.

The county commission is going to meet at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the historic Stephens County Courthouse in downtown Toccoa.

The rezoning, conditional use, and variance requests from William Hutto for poultry houses on his property are all on the agenda.

Last week, the Stephens County Planning Commission voted to recommend that county commissioners grant his request to re-zone his property Agriculture Intensive from its current Agricultural General/Residential zoning and also allow his conditional use permit for a poultry operation.

However, the Planning Commission voted to recommend denying the variance request needed for one of the poultry houses to be 150 feet from the property line.

Hutto plans to operate eight poultry houses on his property, six of which are new and two that are on the property currently, but are not active.

Numerous neighboring residents have spoken out against the poultry houses, citing concerns about odor, public health, and the ability of the nearby roads to handle truck traffic in and out of the property.

Also during Tuesday’s 8:30 a.m. Stephens County Commission meeting, the commission is expected to consider a request from Susan Lee to re-zone a N. Pinecrest Road property Commercial Community Business from its current Residential Single Family for the purpose of putting in a personal care home.

Numerous residents nearby spoke out against that request to the Stephens County Planning Commission, which voted unanimously to recommend that the request be denied.

There will be public hearings for all of these requests at 8:30 a.m., followed by the county commission’s work session to discuss its agenda items for the regular meeting.

The regular meeting to vote on the agenda items will come after the work session.

Tuesday’s 8:30 a.m. Stephens County Commission meeting is open to the public.