Franklin BOC Tables Request for Poultry Farm on SR59

Franklin County commissioners have tabled a request to approve the construction of a poultry farm on SR59.

At a public hearing Monday evening before their regular meeting, the board heard from Larry Brown who wants to put poultry houses on a 22-acre tract of land on SR59 near Ty Cobb Regional Medical Center.

Brown told the presented the board with printed information on the benefits of poultry farming and a paper by a UGA professor he says dispels myths about problems poultry houses raise for their neighbors.

After hearing from Brown, a number of people who live next to and near where the new farm would be located spoke up.

Judy Segars told the board she lives on the property next to where the houses would be built.

She said with the sale of Ty Cobb Regional looming, poultry houses would so close would be a detriment to the takeover by St. Mary’s.

“I have all kinds of respect for chicken farmers and I eat a lot of chicken, but I feel like this would be a horrible detriment to the hospital,” she said. “Since we’re in mid-purchase of St. Mary’s taking over the hospital, we want the hospital to do well. Having this would be a significant problem for all of us.”

Another property owner, Lisa Brannen said the poultry houses would be located a quarter mile behind her house.

Having been raised on a chicken farm, Brannen disagreed with Brown’s assertion that poultry houses pose no problems for neighbors.

“Regardless of what the University of Georgia says, I’ve graduated twice from there myself and have a degree from a third institution,” Brannen said. “So, I’m not ignorant of the ramifications that go along with the type of business proposed for that property. I’m asking if you (the board) approve a poultry house a quarter mile from your house?”

Jeremy Howard told the board he and some investors recently purchased 55 acres near the proposed farm to market as commercial industrial property.

“We bought our property just a couple of months ago as an investment,” Howard explained. “Our property is approximately 55-acres. It’s zoned commercial and industrial. We are currently marketing the land to as many commercial businesses as we can. We feel like if this chicken house goes through, then the pool of buyers interested in buying our property would dramatically decrease.”

Another man who lives next to the proposed poultry farm property said he had a contract to sell his house, but the deal fell through when the buyers learned a poultry farm was going to be built nearby.

Most of those who objected to the poultry farm agreed with Greg Gibson who said having the poultry farm so close to Ty Cobb Regional would be an embarrassment to the County and the City of Lavonia.

“We have an opportunity to have something nice,” Gibson said. “We have St. Mary’s coming in to run it. Don’t give it a black eye by putting a chicken house right beside it. Let’s not be known as the hospital with the chicken houses by it. Give it time. Let other businesses come into the area. And in the long run we’ll be the ones to prosper from this.”

After hearing from so many people who were opposed to the poultry farm, the board voted to table the matter and send it back to the Franklin County Planning Commission for further study.