Small Georgia city clips record topiary, will keep ‘largest’ chicken

Dec 20, 2023

Fitzgerald city leaders voted Monday night to clip plans to finish what would have been the world's largest topiary.

But Mayor Jason Holt said the small south Georgia community will keep the metal frame that he says may be the biggest chicken statue.

The rusting roadside attraction sat unfinished for years, raising some local concerns but also garnering national media attention over dreams for the 62-foot-tall chicken topiary. The original plan, championed by a previous mayor, called for overnight rental accommodations inside the beast.

Holt said the project, paid for from a special tax fund, has cost the city nearly $300,000 and it was unclear how much higher the tab could go. The rebar structure and much of the rental unit was built, but adding plants on the exterior to make it a topiary would have added still more unbudgeted bird costs.

Holt said the city council voted 8-0 to follow the advice of an appointed citizen committee, which essentially recommended freezing the chicken: Secure the structure, paint it red, remove interior tanks that were part of a water system, encircle the fowl with a 6-foot fence to keep kids from climbing it, add LED accent lights as a decorative flourish, and install landscaping.

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Putting feathery-looking pampas grass near the base might eventually make it look as though the big chicken is sitting on a nest, the mayor said. Or so that is the hope.

"I guess we will still be the largest chicken but we won't have the largest topiary," Holt said.

Fitzgerald, a community of about 9,000 people about 20 minutes from I-75, has long embraced chickens as its sort of spirit animal. Long ago, wild chickens gravitated to the area. Some residents decorate their yards with small chicken figures. And a photo of chickens is the main image on the city's website.

Nothing was as big as plans for the big chicken, though. After the project languished, some wanted to tear the whole thing down. But Holt said city leaders have been told that could cost another $40,000, which would have added to what he said was already "a colossal waste" in building the bird.

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It was unclear what it would cost to complete the topiary, Holt said. Officials were told maintenance costs alone would have been $50,000 annually, not including staffing expenses. Even then, horticulturists who were consulted predicted that shade from two nearby trees would limit sunshine on part of the structure, limiting plant growth.

"We would have the world's largest chicken with a case of mange," Holt said.

City leaders also were told it would be costly to make additions to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act in order to rent out the interior living space.

Still, it's conceivable that the idea of the Fitzgerald topiary chicken might fly again.

Holt said none of what the city council approved would preclude one day making changes, such as adding plants as originally planned or completing the rental unit.

But, he added, "I don't see that happening."

This story was first published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.