Proposed chicken farm ruffles feathers of Lathrop residents

One million chickens will have to wait to see if they call Lathrop home, after the San Joaquin County planning commission Thursday delayed voting whether to approve a poultry farm outside the city west of I-5,

County Community Development Director Kerry Sullivan said she got a fax at 5 p.m. from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District warning of a potential health risk caused by the odors emanating from the farm.

The farm is being proposed by the Olivera Family Partnership and is opposed by Lathrop officials, developers of planned subdivisions in the area and owners of expensive new homes.

The major concerns are that home values will plummet, new development will not be bought and that the city will lose money because of this.

"Ag land includes chicken ranches, but that is not the place for one," said Lathrop resident Ronald Del Barba, one of about forty residents who showed up to protest the poultry farm sporting a drawing of a chicken with a thick red crossing running through it. "There is too much open space away from residential development."

If approved, the poultry farm will be built over six years on Undine Road north of Lathrop, on 7 acres of a 239-acre parcel.

It would have six egg-laying houses, a processing plant, and a waste area on the north part of the property. A belt system would be installed under all chicken cages to catch manure, cross ventilation would dry the manure and reduce odors, manure would be removed twice weekly and taken to the waste area. According to a staff report, the manure would be removed from that area twice a year, during the spring and fall planting seasons.

Chickens who reach their egg-producing limit would be killed using carbon monoxide gas, and all dead chickens will be incinerated on the property.

The air pollution district previously said odors would be contained by the ventilation system, but apparently changed its mind at the last minute. Sullivan said she was not able to reach anyone at the district after getting the fax.

The poultry farm has drawn plenty of opposition from Lathrop officials and residents in the surrounding subdivisions of Mossdale Village. Residents and developers are worried that the stench from the farm will be carried by wind to the houses there, as well as the planned River Islands and other Lathrop.

Complaints have also centered the project being in a flood-prone region and that it will prevent future housing development. The latter may cost the city Lathrop millions in the future.

Dean Ruiz, representing developer Richland Planned Communities at the meeting said if the planning commission eventually approves the project, Richland may appeal the decision to the Board of Supervisors.

"It depends on what the final project looks like and what mitigating factors are included," he said.

County planners disagree with the complaints. In the staff report, they say flooding would not be a problem because all facilities would be built one foot above the flood plain.

As far as the land-use issue, county staff said since the farm will lie on agriculture-zoned land and outside Lathrop's sphere of influence, and because the county has a right-to-farm ordinance, residents who move into homes in the area have to accept inconveniences from the smell or dust in the area.

If it were approved, construction on the farm would have started in as soon as a month. With the delay, a start time would be months from now.

Contact reporter Roman Gokhman at romnag@tracypress.com.

First published: Friday, May 5, 2006