The commission heard from a number of angry citizens and their lawyers who don’t want businesses in their neighborhoods.

Lawyers were involved in one particularly heated zoning item concerning the construction of chickenhouses.

Don Jordan and Robert Stevenson were at the meeting to appeal the decision of the Hall County Planning Commission to approve Milton Satterfield’s request to vary the setback requirements to build chickenhouses on his property, located on the north side of Home Place Road.

Attorney Wyc Orr argued on behalf of his client, who owns property near Satterfield’s, that the decision to grant Satterfield a variance was "a serious error by the planning commission."

"Their objection is to chickenhouses at all," said Emily Bagwell, an attorney representing Satterfield.

The commission voted 3-2 to grant Satterfield the variance.

Vernita Loveridge spoke on behalf of the special-events license she applied for at her business, the Holiday Marina on Lake Lanier.

"Our events have always included amplified music. We aren’t asking for anything we haven’t been doing for the last eight years," she said.

But residents were opposed to the commission granting the license because the loud music from some events can be heard in surrounding neighborhoods late at night.

"They’re playing too loud and too late at night," one Gaines Ferry Road resident remarked.

Commission Chairman Tom Oliver suggested the two parties meet to come to some sort of compromise before the next hearing.

Toward the end of the meeting, Commissioner Deborah Mack said she had looked into why the tax assessors, a three-person part-time board, received county health insurance.

The board agreed to have it discontinued effective Nov. 1.

The issue has come up in previous budget hearings, with many, including Mack’s opponent for the District 4 seat, Ashley Bell, upset that Hall County has not discontinued the tax assessors’ insurance to save money in a tight budget year.

Cutting the insurance would save the county about $18,000.

Mack said in her research, she never came across anything in the archives explaining when or why the tax assessors board began receiving health insurance.

"I just don’t like the timing of this," said Commissioner Bobby Banks, alluding to the upcoming elections July 15.