12/9/2019 Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes
GORDON COUNTY
PLANNING and ZONING COMMISSION
PUBLIC HEARING
DECEMBER 9, 2019
The Gordon County Planning Commission held a Public Hearing on Monday, December 9, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Gordon County Administration Building for the purpose of hearing variance and zoning change requests.
Members present were:
Randy Rule, Eddie Smith, Jerry Lovelace, Nathan Serritt, and Butch Layson
Randy Rule called the meeting to order and advised all present of the sign-up sheets available for those who wish to address the Planning Commission on any of the zoning or variance change applications.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
A motion was made by Jerry Lovelace to approve the minutes of the previous meeting of November 11, 2019. Nathan Serritt seconded the motion. All voted aye. The minutes were approved as written.
VARIANCE APPLICATION #V19-16, EDWARD D. STEPHENS
Chairman Rule read variance application #V19-16, Edward D. Stephens, requesting a variance for a 1.0121-acre tract located at 228 Wrights Hollow Road, Calhoun. Mr. Stephens explained he would like to build an 800 square foot metal structure for a garage with a 300 square foot porch roof and is asking for a 500 square foot variance. All adjoining property owners had been notified.
Butch Layson made the motion to approve the variance application identified as #V19-16 to allow construction of an 800 square foot metal structure with a 300 square foot porch roof, granting the 500 square foot variance as requested. Jerry Lovelace seconded the motion. All voted aye. The variance was granted. The thirty-(30) day appeal period was explained.
REZONING APPLICATION #Z19-19, JOE BALDWIN
Chairman Rule read rezoning application #Z19-19, Joe Baldwin, requesting to rezone a 1.72-acre tract located at 2506 Boone Ford Road, Calhoun from A-1 to R-1. Mr. Baldwin represented the request explaining that he would like to rezone to bring into compliance and leave the remaining 10 acres in order to have an agricultural land covenant. All adjoining property owners had been notified.
Jerry Lovelace made the motion to approve the rezoning application identified as #Z19-19 from A-1 to R-1. Nathan Serritt seconded the motion. All voted aye. The recommendation for approval was sent to the Board of Commissioners.
REZONING APPLICATION #Z19-20, PRESTON EDWARDS and MALLORY HENSON, (applicant); JAMES HENSON, (owner)
Chairman Rule read rezoning application #Z19-20, Preston Edwards and Mallory Henson (appl.), James Henson (owner), requesting to rezone a 1.267-acre tract located at 224 Knight Bottom Road, Ranger from A-1 to R-1. Mr. Edwards represented the request explaining that his fiancé’s grandfather would like to subdivide the 1.267 acres from his property for his granddaughter, Mallory Henson, to build a home and keep the remaining 10 acres in the Conservation Use. All adjoining property owners had been notified.
Eddie Smith made the motion to approve the rezoning application identified as #Z19-19 from A-1 to R-1. Nathan Serritt seconded the motion. All voted aye. The recommendation for approval was sent to the Board of Commissioners.
REZONING APPLICATION #Z19-18, THONG TO, (applicant); LIEMT NGUYEN, (owner)
Chairman Rule read rezoning application #Z19-18, Thong To (appl.), Liemt Nguyen (owner), requesting to rezone a 64.638-acre tract located at 335 North Goat Road, Resaca from A-1 to Conditional Use. Mr. To represented the request explaining that he has purchased the property in order to build an additional 6 chicken houses, 50 x 600 feet each. He owns the property to the north with 8 chicken houses already.
Area property owners spoke in opposition to this rezoning request with concerns of increased traffic and road damage from the trucks, increased noise, odor, flies, decreased property values, water/soil pollution, the toxins that pollute the air and being a safety concern. These will be industrial style/mega houses. There are already 650 chicken houses in Gordon County and 6% of chicken consumed in this country comes from Gordon County. Other concerns were the loss of quality of life due to not being able to enjoy outdoor activities such as grilling, swimming, children playing, jogging, etc., enough is enough, and many other statistics were presented, even a letter from the CDC about the concerns of airborne illnesses such as the bird flu. Other comments were that if you can see the air coming at you it can’t be healthy, all had bought their homes before the other poultry houses were built to be able to enjoy the quiet rural area and the county needs to protect them and their property values. Others feel that Mr. To does not follow guidelines to protect the environment and has been shut down and fined in the past. Those speakers who were strongly opposed to this application were: Doug Jones, Jeff Worley, Jim Tibbs, Clay Brown, Russell Bryant, Jeremy Tatum, Michael Bankhead, Carrie Wilson, Howard Jones, Perry Gammon, Argle West, Rusty Hopper, Dr. Warren Thomas, Shelly Bryson, Greg Bryson, Darla Langston, and Dave Atchison for Jerry Jones.
The Planning Commission members, with the exclusion of Eddie Smith, then had Mr. To, along with Guam Nguyen to interpret for him, answer some questions and concerns that the group of people who had spoken in opposition. Mr. To’s answers to the issues were that he was new to this business and didn’t realize some of the mistakes he had made when he began a few years ago but now does things right and didn’t mean to hurt the community. He was just trying to make a living. He will add a retention pond to collect the run-off and has only been fined and shut down one time. This will be the last chicken houses he intends to build and plans to build and move his family to this property. He is using a different poultry house builder this time with new technology and equipment that will contain the smell better. All adjoining property owners had been notified.
Butch Layson made the motion to deny the rezoning application identified as #Z19-18 from A-1 to Conditional Use. Jerry Lovelace seconded the motion. Eddie Smith abstained from voting. Nathan Serritt voted with the motion. The vote was 3-0 to deny. The recommendation for denial was sent to the Board of Commissioners.
ADDITIONAL BUSINESS
There being no additional business, Jerry Lovelace made the motion to adjourn. Nathan Serritt seconded the motion. All voted aye. The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
