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Crookston council moves ordinance change on allowing slaughterhouses to next meeting after heated debate
Summary
After public comment and council debate about enforcement, outdoor livestock and scale, council agreed to bring back the previously tabled ordinance to allow slaughterhouses in the heavy industrial zone as a permitted use for a formal vote at the next regular meeting; business owner and residents urged approval with local safeguards.
The Crookston Ways & Means Committee directed staff to return a previously tabled ordinance to the next regular council meeting that would allow slaughterhouses and processing plants as a permitted use in the city’s heavy industrial zone, after hours of discussion Nov. 16.
Staff summarized three options: permit slaughterhouses outright in the heavy industrial zone; define and allow a small-scale slaughterhouse; or allow them as a conditional use subject to Chapter 15.2.99 conditional-use restrictions. Council members split on whether to add restrictions such as prohibiting outdoor livestock or requiring USDA certification.
Resident Jacob Snider testified in favor of B&E Meats, saying the owner operates at a modest scale (he said the business processes about five to seven cows a day), built the facility to avoid outdoor livestock and would comply with city, state and federal rules. Brent, the owner of B&E Meats, also addressed the committee and said he built the facility to keep livestock indoors, runs multiple state licenses now, and that USDA certification is required only for interstate sales.
Some council members said they do not want to prohibit a locally owned business from expanding; others warned the ordinance change could open the door for larger operations later and urged written restrictions and enforceability. The committee ultimately expressed consensus to bring the ordinance—allowing slaughterhouses/plants as a permitted use—back to the next council meeting for a formal vote.
No final change to the zoning code was adopted at the Nov. 16 work session; the item will return to the regular agenda for a vote and any proposed amendments will be considered then.
