Jarrett Foods Annexed into Lavonia City Limits

The Lavonia City Council has voted to annex property owned by Jarrett Foods into the City limits and rezone it B3 Industrial.

At a called meeting Tuesday evening, the Council heard from Co-owner of Jarrett Foods, Terry Willis who emphasized his operation will not bring in and kill live chickens, is not a rendering plant, and will not add other forms of livestock to their operation such as cattle, goats, etc. Nor include other kinds of birds – just chickens.

Willis said his operation will be deboning chickens for potential clients such as Tyson and Perdue and then sending the product back to the client.

Willis said so far, he only has one client from Washington State that will be sending Jarrett Foods chickens from South Carolina to debone.

As for the amount of truck traffic Willis said initially he expects only about two tractor-trailers a day which would use Highway 17 coming off of I-85.

Councilman Andrew Murphy asked City Manager Charles Cawthon if the City had enough water capacity for the new plant after Willis said he expects initially to use about 10K gallons a day.

Cawthon said the city can handle that.

Councilman Michael Schulman motioned to approve the rezoning to B3 but during the discussion period, Councilman Jeremy Madden said he worried there was nothing in the City Zoning Ordinance to prevent Jarrett Foods from switching over to a new operation, such as a rendering or cooking plant.

City Attorney Jay Doss said in order for Jarrett Foods to switch to a different kind of operation, they would have to apply for a conditional use permit and it would have to be approved by the Council.

The Council then voted to approve zoning the property to B3 Industrial with conditions added by a vote of 3-0 with Councilman Eddie Floyd recusing himself because he owns property on Grady School Rd adjacent to the Jarrett Foods plant.

The Council also approved annexing the 16 acres into the City Limits after hearing from several citizens two who said they approved the annexation and one who said he believed it was a bad idea.