Judge rules city should not have issued permits for Wholestone’s ‘boutique’ butcher shop
Oct. 11, 2022
By Joe Sneve, The Dakota Scout
The city of Sioux Falls ignored state law when it issued a series of building permits on a 1,800-square-foot butcher shop in northeast Sioux Falls, a Minnehaha County judge said Tuesday.
Wholestone Farms ‘last week’ last week received the final permit from the Sioux Falls Planning and Development Services Department necessary to operate, a project milestone company officials believed would protect them from a proposed ballot initiative to prohibit new meat-processing facilities from opening within city limits.
But Judge Sandra Hoglund Hanson said the occupancy permit issued Friday –along with six others issued since Smart Growth Sioux Falls successfully petitioned to get the project on the Nov. 8 ballot – violated state election laws, which require government to take no action once it is certified on the ballot.
NEWS: Pork plant vote not Broin’s first foray into ballot process
“It does not seem the city should’ve taken action with respect to the subject matter of the petition, in other words slaughterhouses,” the Second Circuit judge said during Tuesday’s two-hour hearing in the Minnehaha County Courthouse.
Complicating matters, though, is that Smart Growth Sioux Falls in its initial filing in September had sought an injunction intended to block the city from issuing more permits pertaining to construction at Wholestone’s site at 3601 N. Sorin Ave.
Wholestone has built a small butcher shop on the future proposed site of its processing plant.
And now that Wholestone already has all its city permitting complete, Hanson acknowledged that an injunction would not provide the relief Smart Growth Sioux Falls sought in the initial filing. So instead, she afforded Smart Growth attorney Brendan Johnson time to amend the filing to seek a writ of mandamus, which would then give her jurisdiction to invalidate the building permits issued to Wholestone from the city planning office.
“I do think, then, the plaintiff has shown as a declaratory matter for at least injunctive relief, which would have been granted had not the city said, ‘we don’t have any more to do,’” she said.
Neither City Attorney Stacy Kooistra nor Reed Rasmussen, a private attorney hired to represent the city in the case, made themselves available for comment following the hearing.
NEWS: Associates of Wholestone Farms project call bribery scandal ‘ancient history’
Stephen Landon, a Cadwell, Sanford, Deibert & Garry attorney representing Wholestone in the case, said after the hearing that he’s unsure how Hoglund Hanson came to her decision given that no formal motion for a writ of mandamus had ever been submitted on behalf of Smart Growth Sioux Falls.
What is clear, he said, is that the matter is likely not settled.
“Until they actually correctly comply with the pleading requirements, which they haven’t done yet, and that verified petition actually states a claim for a mandamus, certainly the court can’t issue one,” Landon said. “So as of now there isn’t one.”
Luke Minion, Wholestone’s chairman of the board, said in a statement that Wholestone was not aware that any of its current permits were revoked as a consequence of the hearing.
“Wholestone has not been required to stop any aspect of our business plan at this time,” the statement said. “Wholestone understands the judge is requiring additional information from the opposition as the next step.”
Johnson and Smart Growth Sioux Falls spokesman Robert Peterson agree that a procedural step will need to take place before Hoglund Hanson can issue a final ruling, but that’s merely a formality, they say.
“The court correctly paused Wholestone’s shameful scheme to undermine the will of voters and reversed the city’s deliberate attempt to evade public transparency and accountability,” Peterson said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. “We are pleased that the court decided in favor of the people of Sioux Falls, who have every right to determine whether they want new slaughterhouses as their neighbors.”
Barring a change of course for Hoglund Hanson, Wholestone’s butcher shop – and the company’s broader meat-processing facility where up to 6 million hogs could be slaughtered annually – is on hold until voters decide whether to ban new slaughterhouses within the city.
Representatives of Sioux Falls Open for Business, the campaign committee formed in opposition to the ballot question on the ballot in next month’s election, said the case between Smart Growth Sioux Falls, Wholestone and the city has no bearing on its work.
“It doesn’t change a thing for Sioux Falls Open for Business,” said Christine Erickson, the committee’s president and chairperson, who noted that Wholestone’s project sits on land that right now is zoned for heavy industrial and would otherwise be eligible for a meat-processing facility. “We will continue working to defeat this ordinance, protect business development in Sioux Falls and keep our opponents from changing the rules in the middle of the game.”
The story is brought to you in partnership with The Dakota Scout, a local news source focused on government and politics. To learn more, click here.
