The Franklin County Planning Commission voted Thursday to recommend that county commissioners deny a request to rezone property and permit the new industry.
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Opponents of a proposed Pilgrim’s Pride plant near Carnesville packed the Franklin County Justice Center Thursday to speak at a Planning Commission meeting. Members of the IBA (front row) also attended. (Photos by Scoggins)
CARNESVILLE – Despite a negative recommendation from the Franklin County Planning Commission, Pilgrim’s Pride plans to move ahead with its plans to gain permission to build a $70 million rendering plant near Carnesville.
"Pilgrim's remains absolutely committed to building the proposed pet food ingredient plant in Franklin County,” Cameron Bruett, head of corporate affairs at Pilgrim’s, said. “In the weeks ahead, we will continue answering questions from the community and elected officials to make sure it is clear how this state-of-the-art plant will use safe, proven and redundant technology to protect Franklin County's natural resources, offer local residents high-quality careers and bring growth to Georgia's and Franklin County's poultry industry."
The company will now seek permission to rezone two pieces of property and obtain a conditional use permit for the facility from Franklin County Commissioners on April 5.
Pilgrim’s officials outlined plans in front of the planning commission Thursday and answered questions before the group’s vote.
Mark Glover, general manager of Pilgrim’s Protein Conversion Division, said the proposed plant would make high-protein pet food ingredients from poultry – and only poultry – byproducts. The ingredients will then be sold to well-known pet food companies.
The new facility will use the most advanced technology available to combat odors, he said.
“Odors won’t leave the property,” he said.
Local officials visited non-Pilgrim’s plants that use the technology in Iowa and South Carolina and “they could not detect an odor outside the facility,” Glover said. “This plant will not hurt Franklin County air quality, period.”
Rendering plants like the one planned are important to keep the poultry industry healthy, he said, since only two-thirds of each broiler chicken is used for human consumption.
“These plants are absolutely critical to the poultry supply chain,” Glover said.
Mike Giles, the president of the Georgia Poultry Federation, said for the poultry industry to continue to grow in Georgia, the Pilgrim’s plant is needed.
“Our industry cannot operate, cannot exist, without these vitally important facilities,” Giles said.
When Hurricane Michael hit South Georgia, rendering plants in the area had to shut down, disrupting production throughout the poultry industry, he said.
Giles said that an expert on protein conversion at Georgia Tech has reviewed Pilgrim’s plans for the Franklin County plant.
“The gist of it is, he’s very complimentary of the approach Pilgrim’s Pride has put in the design of their facility,” Giles said.
Glover said the company has heard the concerns and questions of the community.
“We want to be held accountable,” he said.
Pilgrim’s has offered to sign a development agreement with Franklin County commissioners that outlines commitments from the company to the community.
“We’re signing a development agreement with the county to give you additional air quality assurance,” he said.
Attorney Kathryn Zickert went over the provisions in the development agreement:
1. The plant shall use state-of-the-art equipment and practices including but not limited to a thermal oxidizer; negative air pressure inside of the building; internal truck deliver, unloading, and cleaning; use of covered or sealed tractor trailers; internal collection treatment and recycling of water; and on site laboratory and independent laboratory testing of cleaned and treated water. Odor abatement treatment shall run whenever the plant is operational.
2. Processing is limited to poultry only.
3. The wastewater treatment facility will be operated by Pilgrim's, not via contract with a third party.
4. Neither chlorine nor anhydrous ammonia will be used in the operation of the facility.
5. Pilgrim's will pay the same rates for water use as any other industrial user.
6. Pilgrim's will not use a land application spray system.
7. All raw materials shall be kept within the building; no outside storage. However, trucks may wait outside the building until it is accessible.
8. No Pilgrim's trucks will stop or idle on public right-of-way except in the event of an emergency.
9. There shall be no overnight storage of trucks with raw material.
10. The plant shall not use an incinerator.
I 1. Pilgrim's shall plant a 50-foot landscape buffer along the property's frontage on 1-85 where needed.
12. No tax abatements or other incentives shall be sought from Franklin County or the State of Georgia. However, Pilgrim's is allowed to utilize the state statutory job credits program allowed for any new industrial user in the state of Georgia. Pilgrim's must hire at least 90 employees to avail itself of this benefit.
13. Pilgrim's shall use best efforts to hire locally, and it will also use e-verify to confirm that it does not hire undocumented workers.
14. Pilgrim's shall provide copies of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s monitoring reports of its operation to the Board of Commissioners on an annual basis.
15. Pilgrim's shall participate in a community advisory board with appointed by both Pilgrim’s and commissioners with bi-annual meetings to address citizens' concerns.
16. Except for lighting required for security or by the FAA, design lighting on site shall be of low sodium or comparable design with a controlled footprint so as to reasonably prohibit glare on to adjacent properties.
17. The conditional use permit shall not run with the land.
Zickert said that additional landscape buffer could also be installed on other parts of the property, if requested.
The company is also open to add other things to the agreement, she said, if requested by the planning commission or commissioners.
“This will be an ongoing effort that I commit to you we are willing to pursue,” she said.
Glover said the plant being proposed is not like rendering plants from the past.
“It is truly night and day from plants built 10 years ago and those built today,” he said.
Planning Commission members asked several questions of the company about issues ranging from enough access for emergency vehicles, stormwater runoff, employee benefits and the size of the facility.
Hewlatt asked about Pilgrim’s past violations and how the company could assure the community none would be made here.
Glover said that Pilgrim’s has “37,000 employees and some of them make mistakes.”
When there are violations, corrective measures are taken, he said. His division doesn’t make enough money to pay fines, he said.
“I’ve got to make sure we do it right the first time,” he said.
Russell asked the Pilgrim’s representatives what safe guards are in place to ensure there are not problems in Franklin County like other communities have experienced with Pilgrim’s plants.
Engineer Barry Griffith said that things done to fix problems elsewhere have been applied to the design of the Franklin County plant.
“We have tried to make this thing bullet proof,” he said.
CARNESVILLE – The Franklin County Planning Commission voted Thursday to recommend that county commissioners deny a request to rezone property and permit the new industry.
Planning Commission members Harold Gillespie, Carolee Coker, Erika Hewatt and Susan Russell voted unanimously against Pilgrim’s Pride’s applications that would allow the company to build a pet food ingredient plant.
Commission member Guerry Hall recused himself from discussion or voting on the matter because he grows chickens for Pilgrim’s Pride, County Planning Director Scott DeLozier said.
Pilgrim’s applied to rezone a total of 109.69 acres – in two tracts of property – near the intersection of Highway 320 and I-85 for commercial industrial use and asked for a conditional use permit to build and operate the plant.
The Planning Commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to Franklin County Commissioners, who can follow the board’s recommendation in full or in part or ignore it.
Commissioners will meet April 5 on the Pilgrim’s applications.
A public hearing will begin at 5 p.m. in the Telford Center for the Fine and Performing Arts auditorium at Franklin County High School, followed by the commissioners’ regular meeting, which will include a vote on Pilgrim’s applications.
After Pilgrim’s officials outlined their plans to the Planning Commission (see related story), 20 speakers, some wearing white t-shirts with “Stop the Rendering” emblazoned in red on the back, voiced concerns about the plant and charged that Pilgrim’s Pride’s history of problems prove the company won’t be a good neighbor.
Diane Forester, whose house is just in front of where the plant would be built, said her home is a peaceful place where she works in her yard, plays with her puppies and tends her garden.
“I do not want the noise. I do not want the stink. I do not want the extra traffic,” she said.
Charles Strickland, whose land joins the proposed plant’s location, said he has lung disease, heart disease and a low immune system.
“You can understand why I don’t want this plant as a neighbor,” he said. “I don’t need them as a neighbor, and I don’t think Franklin County does.”
Paula Bridges, who lives a mile and a half from the proposed location, said the facility would prevent her son from hanging out with friends at her house.
“There’s no way you can convince me this will not smell,” she said. “I do not want it in my county period.”
Tax Commissioner Bobby Martin said that the company’s history of fines, convictions and settlements makes it “absolutely convincing that Pilgrim’s Pride cannot be trusted. How are we to believe them?”
Martin said he visited a SC Pet Food plant in Ward, S.C., that uses the technology Pilgrim’s plans to use.
“The best way I can describe the smell was an open septic tank,” Martin said, adding that the smell was “very objectionable.”
Stan Whitsett, a former agriculture teacher at Franklin County High School and the University of Georgia, said he supports the poultry industry.
But Whitsett said that he objects to Pilgrim’s plans.
“No man can be right all the time,” he said. “I’m right about this: no rendering plant in Franklin County.”
Polly Walker called Pilgrim’s a “disgusting, untrustworthy corporation” that will pollute the county with “noxious smells of rotting animal flesh.”
Walker said her family has lived along the Middle Fork of the Broad River for six generations and runs Slow Water rafting and kayak center near Royston.
“You need to tell Pilgrim’s Pride to get out and don’t come back,” Walker said.
Elizabeth Busby questioned whether the property taxes that will be raised from the new plant would actually benefit the county.
Busby argued that the plant would bring in workers and their children from outside the county. The increase in students – some of whom she said may need to learn English – could cost the school system more than what the facility’s taxes would bring in.
Lee Padgett said Franklin County must be selective about the companies it allows into the county.
Pilgrim’s has a track record and history of bribery, environmental problems and safety issues.
Joe Strickland agreed, saying that change is coming to the county and Franklin County must work to control that change.
“We have the opportunity to do so with this project,” he said.
Strickland said that county leaders need to remember the Latin saying “carpe diem,” which means “seize the day.”
“If we don’t seize the day now, the future may seize us,” he said.
Each speaker was met by applause from a capacity at the hearing, held at the Franklin County Justice Center. Opponents of the measure also stood outside the room and filled an overflow space at the Carnesville Community Center, where the meeting was shown on a Zoom link.
Members of the Franklin County Industrial Building Authority also attended the Planning Commission meeting. They did not comment at the meeting.
Commissioners announced prior to the meeting that they would be watching the planning meeting via Zoom.
The opponents of the plant have organized a Facebook group – Stop the Rendering – and a website – www.stoptherendering.com – while also passing out signs and selling t-shirts.