Commissioners move meeting to Thursday, May 5

A group of north Grady County residents will be anxious to attend the Grady County Commission meeting next week, which will not be held on Tuesday morning, but will be held on Thursday morning at 9.
The regularly scheduled meeting has been moved to Thursday to avoid a conflict with the commissioners and administrative staff who are attending the annual convention of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia in Savannah.
Last week, a delegation of residents from County Line Road, who live near a large chicken house operation owned by Nghe Van Phan, appeared before the commission to oppose the variance being sought by Phan.
Phan recently had eight additional chicken houses built on his property where he already had 12 other houses. However, the eight-house addition fails to meet setback requirements with the smallest violation being eight inches over what’s allowed and the largest being eight feet over.
The county’s chicken house ordinance requires a 250-foot setback from the property line and 1,500-foot setback from a neighboring residence.
Durrel Cox, the adjacent property owner to Phan contacted The Messenger this week to make it clear that not just one of the eight houses was in violation of the ordinance.
“I’m not nitpicking a farmer. All eight of them are in violation and they need to be moved,” Cox said. “The county should make them do the right thing. We need to send a signal to these folks coming in here,” Cox added.
The north Grady County resident also said the county must address the incinerators that are used at the chicken house operation and emit foul odors.
“I’m also looking at this thing from an environmental standpoint,” Cox said.
Moultrie attorney John Carlton, who is representing Phan, told the county commission last week it would take an additional $289,000 to bring the eight houses in compliance with the ordinance. Carlton also stated that Phan had invested $2 million for the eight new chicken houses.
Previously, there was no variance procedure associated with the chicken house ordinance. In February, the commission adopted a revised ordinance that incorporated the chicken house ordinance into the specific land use regulations to provide for a variance procedure.
Commissioners are expected to vote on the variance request at next Thursday’s meeting, which is open to the public.
“There are a lot more people than just us that are upset about this,” Cox said Tuesday.
There has been an uptick in recent months of construction of new chicken houses, and in February, Grady County Code Enforcement Officer Larry Ivy told commissioners that plans were being considered that would result in the construction of 30 additional chicken houses in the county, and not just in north Grady County, but also in southern sections of the county.