PEACH COUNTY, Ga. — Peach County commissioners are expected to vote on a 'greenhouse and light' ordinance. This proposed legislation comes five years after some folks near Pure Flavor, located along Highway 96, complained about the giant greenhouse.
Pure Flavor is a Canadian company that grows vegetables. The three million square foot facility in Peach County's back yard is the first of the company's kind outside of its Canadian headquarters. The project broke ground and opened doors in 2018.
A year later, a few neighbors told 13WMAZ their worries concerned the supplemental lighting emitting too bright, outside of daylight hours.
Peach County Commissioner Wade Yoder said the proposal was presented about a month and a half ago. If adopted, the ordinance will require black out curtains to be installed with greenhouses using the supplemental lighting.
Joyce Reed lives about a mile from the Pure Flavor greenhouse. She said after living there for 20 years, she's noticed a bright glow during certain times of the day but it hasn't been a bother.
"I can't ever say that that greenhouse lights ever interfered with my sleep, anything," Reed said.
She said she's never heard neighbors complain about the brightness either.
"In no way did they ever affect me. The only thing - sometimes early in the morning, if you came out the whole area would be an orange color," Reed said.
She said she's not sure if the bright lights she constantly saw was Pure Flavor's doing.
"There'd be orange in the front, back and side," Reed said. "I'd go down the road [and] it would still be orange but I couldn't tell you the source, I have no idea."
The ordinance states the greenhouse owners who rely on supplemental lighting would have to install curtains which would have to be closed up to 90% within 30 minutes after sunset and are to remain closed until an hour before sunrise.
The language prohibits the future construction of greenhouses within 500 feet of an occupied residential dwelling. It would take affect Dec. 31, 2025.
"If you close them from 9-6 that might help," Reed said.
In 2019, Thomas Kempton, a Peach County resident, filed a lawsuit against the county and Pure Flavor; a judge ruled against him. According to court records, Kempton appealed that ruling.
Peach County Commission meetings are held at the Peach County Government Office in Fort Valley.