The Douglas County Board of Commissioners unanimously denied the special use permit for a Carson Valley meat processing plant. The people who submitted the plans, Sinclair Family Farms, will not be allowed to build that plant on the corner of SR-88 and Centerville Lane.
“We have a motion by Commissioner Walsh and a second by Commissioner Nelson. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any nays? No nays the motion carries 5 to 0,” said Douglas County Commissioner Chairman Barry Penzel.
In this case, the ayes were not the votes that Sinclair Family Farms wanted to hear. Douglas County Commissioners voted to uphold the county planning board's denial for the business's plan for a meat processing plant in the area. The business would have gone into an existing dairy farm. Each commissioner had a similar reason for the way they voted. “We do have issues in this valley with weather, weather related issues. We have floods,” said Douglas County Commissioner Larry Walsh. “The inappropriateness of the location,” said Douglas County Commissioner Wesley Rice.
The location was an issue. The property under consideration is on a flood plain. “This is the right time to introduce a slaughterhouse into the valley somewhere, but I think the locations is totally wrong being in a flood plain,” said local resident Ed Kleiner. “I’ve seen the pictures of what the flood did back in 1997 and it was high. That whole place was under water,” said local resident Beverley Anderson.
The prospective manager of the meat processing plant, Mike Holcomb, says the design for the property did address this issue. “I believe we've done a phenomenal job of addressing these questions. Like making it large enough and tall enough if a flood was to come through,” said Holcomb.
The commissioners however, thought this was still an issue. Holcomb says the business now will go back and regroup before making a decision on the future.
