CAIRO, Ga. — A vote on a controversial chicken house variance is on the agenda for Thursday’s 9 a.m. Grady County Commission meeting at the Grady County Courthouse. Residents directly affected by the request intend to be there.

During an April 19 public hearing at the Grady County Courthouse, residents on County Line Road implored commissioners to deny a request for a setback variance for chicken houses owned by Nghe Van Phan under Jason Farm LLC. A separate set of homeowners whose property borders chicken houses owned by Vy Dao on 538 Spence Road were looking for tighter regulations on chicken houses in general.

Commissioner Charles Norton told the group the variance would be voted on at the next regular commission meeting.

Phan owns 20 chicken houses that hold approximately half a million birds near the Mitchell County line. His eight recently constructed chicken houses reportedly infringe on the county’s required setback of 250 feet from the property line and 1,500 feet from a neighboring residence. When this infraction came to light, a variance was requested. Grady County did not have a variance provision for the construction of chicken houses until February when the board amended a specific land use ordinance to include chicken houses.

Jeanette Shurleyofin the Grady County Code Enforcement office said the 250 foot setback requirement was met when the site plans were submitted.

Phan’s attorney, John Carlton of Moultrie, said the error occurred when a construction crew accidentally knocked down the survey stakes and concrete was poured in the wrong location, causing the chicken houses to be over the setbacks.

Durrel Cox, whose property neighbors the County Line chicken houses, said that mistake had huge consequences.

“Instead of getting survey crews back out there, the farmer just told them where to put it. One pin off made it skew six to eight inches off. The eighth house is eight feet off, just because they skipped a step.”

Gloria Smith, who lives next to Dao’s chicken houses, said her property has also been encroached on. She said she was told her house was 1,800 feet from the nearest chicken house, but after surveyors were hired, it was discovered her home was less than 1,500 feet from the nearest chicken house.

Cox questioned why, in both cases, the chicken houses were built right on the setbacks, with no margin for error.

He said, “I would have at least put it back further to make sure it didn’t infringe.”

When asked why the buffer wasn’t larger, Carlton said, “I don’t have the slightest idea.”

He went on to say there may have been other impediments to setting them back further like power lines or feed bins.

He said he had proposed solving the conflict by “whacking off 10 foot of each chicken house and putting it on the other end,” but the lowest quote he received was for more than $385,000, which led to a variance request.

Attorney Bruce Warren, representing homeowners on County Line Road, said, “Variance is not something for when code has been violated. You can’t say, ‘Hey, give me a variance for what I did wrong.’”

Warren called on commissioners to make Phan come into compliance. He said he realizes compliance will cost the chicken house owner a lot of money but, he said, giving the variance would cost the neighbors a lot, too.

Cox said, in addition to the houses infringing on the setbacks, dead chickens were being incinerated within 250 feet of his residence. Calling the burning of chicken carcasses “inhumane” and “an environmental threat,” he said, “It runs twice a week and it’s terrible.”

According to Shurley, she knows of no ordinance regarding the use of incinerators in Grady County.

Dao has been served with a Environmental Protection Division Department of Natural Resources State of Georgia consent order. The consent order said that an inspection was conducted of his Spence Road site on March 26, 2015, revealing that construction activity had disturbed more than an acre of land and that storm water was discharged from the site during construction activity. Also, the site encroached into the 25 foot buffer of waters and required sampling at the site was not conducted. The owner was ordered to erect erosion and sediment controls and given a list of monitoring requirements to comply with and fined $3,000.

In addition to erosion problems, Smith complains of the smell and claims the fans for the chicken houses are pointed right at her home. She is also opposed to the incinerator.

Smith said her husband was riding a four-wheeler on their property and came through a giant plum of smoke and singed feathers from the burning of the dead chickens. She said the use and enjoyment of her own property has been hugely impacted by the neighboring poultry operation.

“It’s a factory, not just some people raising chickens,” she said. “Thomas County sends certified letters to all property owners and has a public hearing before they allow something like this. We have had no due process of the law.”

She said the chicken houses have adversely affected her property value.

She asked, “Who’s gooing to want to buy a $900,000 piece of property, sitting next to that?”

During April’s public hearing, she told commissioners she has “been denied the enjoyment of my property. We will take all the steps necessary to recoup our losses.”

“We feel like these big chicken operations and the county don’t care about the property owners,” she said. “They are more concerned about more tax dollars so they can build Tired Creek Lake.”

Carlton acknowledged the economic impact of the poultry business.

“Poultry producers are a huge economic force in Georgia,” he said. “They pay a lot of taxes. It is a balancing act between economic interests and odor control.”

He said the best solution is “for counties to come up with longer setbacks, amend the ordinances. It’s a government decision they have to make if they want to avoid public outrage.”