Wednesday, January 29, 2025–9:15 a.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
The Floyd County Commission has approved an ordinance amendment pertaining to the regulation of commercial poultry operations and concentrated or confined animal feeding operations.
Under the current ordinance, the only requirements were that there be 10 acres and a poultry or commercial feeding operation had to be 100 feet from its own property line.
According to Assistant Floyd County Attorney Chris Jackson, the primary focus of the amendment is to create and increase setbacks from protected uses that might be especially impacted by commercial agriculture operations.
“We are now upping that to require a 200-foot setback for any commercial poultry house or CAFO from the property line,” he said. “In addition to that, there would be a 1,500-foot setback from any occupied government building, school, public park, public community center–places where there are regularly outdoor use nearby children and adults.”
It also establishes a 600-foot setback from churches, hospitals, nursing homes, and residences.
“You also can’t build a house within 600 feet of a chicken house,” Jackson added. If you want to, you’re going to have to have the sign-off from the developer of the chicken house to do that, just like they would, if they wanted to build a chicken house within 600 feet of a home.”
There are also provisions for existing livestock structures as well as what happens in case of a change of ownership, or rebuilding after a fire.
“It does set minimum acreage and requires compliance with all state and federal law,” Jackson said. “What you won’t find is a specific stream buffer. Stream buffers are already set as to any construction and any buildings that we have, and we could find no justification for making a stream buffer more strict or an agriculture purpose like this than we do for heavy industrial or something like that.”
The commission also voted to end a 90-day moratorium on the issuance of permits for new or expanded commercial poultry and concentrated animal feeding operations.
The moratorium was enacted in October to allow time to look at the existing ordinances.
Also Tuesday, the commission approved a rezoning request and special use permit for 3280 Rockmart Road in Silver Creek for the storing of construction materials and machinery.
The approval came with a condition that there is no storage of in-earth materials except what is on a trailer or truck. Other conditions require the property to be encircled with a privacy fence that provides 100% opacity, a 20-foot landscape strip, and a native canopy tree must be planted every 20 feet along the frontages, sides, and rears. The SUP for outdoor storage will become void if the proposed use for outdoor storage of construction equipment ceases for more than a year.
The commission also approved a rezoning application for Martha Berry Highway near Glen View Drive for an auto repair business.
That approval came with the following conditions:
- Any/all damaged vehicles will be stored behind an 8-foot-tall, opaque privacy fence that provides 100% screening from adjacent parcels and the public right-of-way.
- The buffer along all residentially zoned parcels include the planting and maintaining of evergreen trees within the previously required fence to mitigate light and noise pollution.
- Any/all exterior lighting should be “dark sky” – fully shielded, emitting no light above a horizontal plane, no more than 3,000 kelvin, no higher than the building, and less than 50 lumens.