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Gordon County commissioners preview six zoning requests; large chicken-house expansion draws concern
Summary
Commissioners reviewed six zoning and conditional-use requests, including a conditional-use application to add four chicken houses on a 16-acre tract in Calhoun (C-2424). Planning staff recommended approval for several items; residents and commissioners raised noise, density and proximity concerns.
Unidentified Speaker 1, an elected official presiding over the Gordon County Board of Commissioners work session, reviewed six public hearing items Tuesday night, including multiple rezoning requests and a conditional-use application to expand poultry operations on a 16-acre tract near Old Boonford Road in Calhoun.
The agenda included Z-2419 (rezoning to manufactured housing at 3703 Highway 411 in Ranger), Z-2420 (a rezoning/conditional-use at 922 River Bend Road SW in Plainville), Z-2422 and Z-2423 (additional routine rezonings), C-2424 (the chicken-house conditional use at 426 Old Boonford Road), and C-2425 (a proposed convenience store at Newtown Church Road and Highway 225). Planning staff recommended approval for several of the items, typically with conditions such as meeting environmental-health (septic) requirements.
The most contested item was C-2424 in Calhoun, which the planning commission approved 5–0. Unidentified Speaker 1 said four chicken houses currently sit on the property and the applicant seeks permission to add four more. "They're looking to add 4 more," he said. Commissioners and staff noted residents at the planning commission raised standard poultry-operation concerns: setbacks from a nearby church, location of a retention pond, property-line issues, and how cumulative density of houses may affect nearby residential areas. Unidentified Speaker 1 said some plat details were unclear when he first reviewed the file and that commissioners would need to "talk" with parties who signed up to speak.
Noise and land-use change surfaced in discussion of Z-2420 and nearby event venues. Unidentified Speaker 1 warned that the county lacks a comprehensive noise ordinance and urged caution: "I just wonder on these if we don't need as a condition ... we do not have a noise ordinance," he said, arguing venues' sound can carry several hundred yards. Planning staff told commissioners they would contact neighbors and follow up on concerns documented in the planning report.
C-2425, the convenience-store application near a GDOT-proposed roundabout, also drew scrutiny: commissioners flagged potential right-of-way takings by the Georgia Department of Transportation and comments from Calhoun about impacts to municipal water lines and utility adjustment plans. Staff noted the site falls inside an overlay district and would need to meet overlay design standards.
Next steps: the board previewed the items for public hearings and identified follow-up actions for staff (confirming septic/environmental-health compliance, clarifying plats and pond/retention features, and contacting neighboring property owners). Formal hearings and votes were scheduled on the agenda; no final county votes on the zoning items appear in the provided transcript.
