The Chicken Tower that flew through City Hall

In case you haven’t driven on Morganton’s Fleming Drive by the Case Farms chicken plant in a week or two, there’s a nearly seven-story-tall, 30,720-square-foot, $26 million metal cube that seemed to JUST APPEAR as if dropped in place at nighttime by aliens.

I don’t know who greased the municipal wheels to get that project reviewed, approved, started, continued, scrutinized, and whatever-you-need, but considering the scale of the thing, the speed of construction, and the municipal variance requests that, properly lubricated, slid right through the typical regulation logjam, I want that negotiator on my team.

This Brand-New All-Metallic cube that is the Chicken Tower is designed specifically for poultry breast processing, (and are you sitting down?), cleaning the air within.

In the words of Joseph Fullwood of RFW Construction Group, who’s assisting Case Farms with the project: “... Typically in a food plant like this, you have a critical processing air unit. Inside this piece of equipment, there’s filters and it has a clean-up cycle so when they do sanitation at the end, they can dry the room out afterward, so it really is critical for food safety.”

Maybe, just maybe, there’ll be a reduction in the l’odeur du sang de poulet. No more need for the State Odor-Control Police to patrol neighborhoods with their NasalRanger schnoz sensors.

The straight-line pathway through Morganton’s By-The-Book development process was a supreme example of what a developer can do. If the city wants to.

And they want Case Farms. It’s one of Morganton’s largest water, sewer, electric, tax-paying customers. As one high-ranking Morganton official told me, “If you don’t want Case Farms here, be ready for higher utility bills.”

If I were Mayor, I’d tell voters, “Water and sewerwise, they are our best customer. Electricwise, they are right there at the top. Tax revenue-wise, off the charts. So, they’re getting what they want. They want Moondog Pizza every Friday? Guess what? They’re gonna get enough pies to feed three shifts. On the house.”

Landscaping for the Chicken Tower? Ahh, don’t worry about it. What about architectural, appearance, and material guidelines? Ahh, that’s for the little guys. Need to build closer to one of the busiest roadways in Morganton? No problem. Don’t want all that landscaping? Easy fix.

Let Honey Hog seek ordinance exceptions. Fat chance. They’ll never open. Wait. Have they ever opened? Landscaping skirmishes keep getting in the way.

Want to exceed height parameters? Fine and dandy. So, what if it hijacks beautiful views of Nature’s Playground?

Nature’s Playground. Tell that to the chickens.

And how does a Morganton ordinance inspection official examine the Chicken Tower? Are they schooled in chicken breast processing? Do they know the difference between a Gizzard Peeling Machine and a Feather Removal Plucking Station?

My bet is, No. Nothing slowing down this project.

But can the city code-enforcement inspectors flat SHUT DOWN a simple residential two-car garage construction project because of a missing GFCI outlet?

In a HEARTBEAT!

Here’s the rundown. Case Farms is no small potatoes when it comes to serving up chicken to the dinner table. Corporately, it processes 3.8 million chickens a week, employs more than 3,500 people, and produces close to 1.1 billion pounds of “poultry products” annually across its operations, according to the company.

(And for what it’s worth, the Department of Agriculture reported last week that broiler growers in the United States weekly program placed 196 million chicks for meat production during the week ending March 28, 2026, up 2% from a year ago.)

The Morganton plant’s contribution is unclear. But it converts A LOT of chickens. The steady stream of Chicken Trucks from I-40 is hard to miss.

In February 2025 the Morganton Board of Adjustments unanimously approved three variance requests to reduce Case Farms’ front setback from 50 feet to 20 feet; to increase the maximum building height to 70 feet to accommodate a critical air processing unit in a proposed breast-packaging facility; and to reduce the width to 7.5 feet from 50 feet of buffer landscaping between zones.

Say what you want about the process, the plant, or the purpose: Morganton is revamping its catalog of design and development ordinances to streamline and expedite future developments.

What the Case Farms’ Chicken Tower shows is Morganton can move quickly and flexibly on development when a major corporate customer is involved, which raises the obvious question of why the same urgency and creativity rarely seem available for everyone else.