LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lancaster County commissioners won’t approve construction of a 380,000-chicken farm that would have supplied birds to the Fremont processing plant for Costco.
The board voted 3-2 Thursday against a special permit for Sunset Poultry, which wanted to construct eight barns housing up to 47,500 chickens apiece.
Commissioners who voted against the permit said the operation just over a mile (1.6 kilometers) north of Raymond Central Junior-Senior High School would have posed too many risky unknowns.
School officials and nearby residents raised questions about the farm’s impact on water quantity and air quality. They also said semitrailer traffic to and from the farm might make roads dangerous for inexperienced, school-age drivers.