Valley Voice Newspaper

Tulare - The opposition stayed home during the first round of public hearings on the proposed beef slaughterhouse and processing plant proposed for 90 acres adjacent to the city's wastewater treatment plant.

After listening to seven people speak in favor of the project, the Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for the facility and recommended the City Council approve general plan and zoning amendments that would allow Western Pacific Meat Packing to build the project.

Western Pacific wants to build three plants on 70 of the 90 acres it plans to purchase on the northeast corner of Paige Avenue and Enterprise Street.

One plant would be for slaughtering and processing beef, a second for cold storage and freezing, and a third for cogeneration in which animal biogas is converted into energy. The plant would produce carcass beef, edible offal, wholesale and retail meat cuts and value-added processed beef products.

Commissioner Dave Kinard said the site next to the wastewater treatment plant is a great location for the operation.

“You're not going to use it [the land] probably for anything else,” Kinard said. “It's a great project.”

The project does have opposition, just as it did when it was initially proposed for Goshen, city officials as a result, sent the initial EIR to attorneys who specialize in environmental issues to make sure concerns about air and water quality, noise, traffic and other issues were adequately addressed so the document could withstand a court challenge.

The project will possibly go to the City Council on Sept. 2.

'Huge Improvement’

Jon Dolieslager, a Tulare County auctioneer and president of the California Livestock Market Auction Association, said the plant would be a “huge improvement” for the county, which has the most dairy cows in the U.S., and for the West Coast.

“This would be a huge help to the dairymen around here for price competition,” Dolieslager said. “This is a chance for them to stay in business long term.”
He and other speakers noted 10 meat-packing plants have closed in the Western U.S. in the last 10 years and maintained a new one would help dairymen, as well as cattle ranchers.

The shutdowns have driven up prices at remaining slaughterhouses and high fuel costs have made the option of sending the cows out-of-state for slaughter and processing prohibitive, they said.

“Having a meat packing plant close by will be good for the dairy industry,” said Rob VandenHeuvel, general manager of the Chino-based Milk Producers Council.
Darin Clagg, a local auctioneer, told planning commissioners he was surprised more dairy owners did not show up for the hearing, given what it is costing them to get their cows slaughtered and processed.

Not long ago, local dairy owners were getting as much as 20 cents a pound less in the slaughter market than their Mid-West colleagues because of the lack of competition, Clagg said.

Louie Martin, part owner of Bel Martin and Sons Dairy, told commissioners he supported the project. So did Gerben Leyendekker of Visalia, who said his family has 15 dairies that milk a total of 20,000 cows.

“This is a project that is very much needed,” Leyendekker said. “This is not our main source of income, but this is definitely our second source of income and we have to have a place for slaughter cows.”

Good Paying Jobs

Bob Nance, the city's economic and redevelopment director, also spoke in favor of the project, telling commissioners the project will generate many jobs that pay “significantly higher than minimum wage.”

He also said the city would continue to have “oversight” of the project for “a substantial number of years.”

Chairman Richard Miller wanted to know more about how an oversight committee would be structured and handle complaints, but City Attorney Steve Kabot said an agreement is still in the works with Western Pacific that will spell out oversight as well as “a multiplicity” of other issues.

Commissioner Chuck Miguel expressed concern about the impact of increased truck traffic on city and county roads, prompting Planning Director Mark Kielty to explain plant traffic will have to comply with county and state routes for trucks.
Miguel asked whether the plant—which at build-out will have capacity to handle 1,000 cows a day—will hold animals outside the buildings.

The project includes no outside holding pens and Western Pacific would have to come back to the city should it want them, Kielty said.

Miguel, who voted for the project, said the operation needs to be “watched extremely closely” and he hoped “we don't have the embarrassment of immigrations coming in and finding we have 200 people who don't belong here.”

Commissioner Deanne Rocha said Tulare needs more jobs and she hopes Western Pacific will hire local residents “because we're the ones who are sticking our necks out” approving the project. “I would hate to see the labor force from elsewhere.”

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