Your Sioux Falls ballot guide to the slaughterhouse ban question, Wholestone Farms

On Nov. 8, Sioux Falls voters will see a question on the ballot that would prohibit the construction or operation of new slaughterhouses within city limits.

There are no specifics in the language, but make no mistake: This is an ordinance directed at a proposed project from Wholestone Farms, something supporters are open about.

The fight over the plant has everyone from massive local companies to the governor weighing in, so if you have some questions about what you'll see on your ballot, we've collected much of our reporting over the last year and a half.

Here's what you need to know before you head to the polls:

What is Wholestone Farms?

Wholestone Farms is a Nebraska-based pork processor founded in 2017, an offshoot of the Minnesota-based Pipestone Holdings.

The company, a cooperative made up of about 200 farmers, announced plans for a plant in northeastern Sioux Falls in June 2021.

More: $500 million pork processing plant planned for northeastern Sioux Falls

It would be a $500 million investment, one that Wholestone representatives say would start with about 1,000 employees when construction is finished in 2025, with another 1,000-1,2000 employees on a second shift added later. Each shift would process about 3 million hogs per year.

What exactly is the fight about?

The proposal has drawn significant controversy, much of it in the last few months — although when the plans were announced, Mayor Paul TenHaken did say in a statement he was concerned about “historic housing challenges” in the city.

"Under normal circumstances, the addition of 1,000 more jobs would be an enormous win for the city of Sioux Falls, yet these are not normal circumstances,” TenHaken said. “While I have been and continue to be supportive of value-added agriculture investments in our region, I have a duty to note the challenges currently being faced within our community at this time.”

The bigger pushback against the plant began earlier this year, when Citizens for a Sustainable Sioux Falls was formed.

Robert Peterson, the group’s executive director, has said the plant would be “a step backward” for the quality of life in Sioux Falls, with concerns including affordable housing, odor and water quality.

The group, along with an associated ballot question committee called “Smart Growth Sioux Falls,” successfully petitioned to get the question on the November ballot, which required at least 6,089 signatures from Sioux Falls citizens.

If approved Nov. 8, the following text would be added to the city code:

• Notwithstanding any other provision of this Code to the contrary, no new Slaughterhouse may be constructed, or be permitted to operate, within the city limits.

• This section does not apply to any existing Slaughterhouse constructed and operating before the effective date of this section. This section does not apply to the expansion or alteration of any Slaughterhouse constructed and operating before the effective date of this section so long as such expansion or alteration occurs at the existing site.

What has been Wholestone's response?

Luke Minion, chairman of the board for Wholestone Farms and CEO of Pipestone, has repeatedly said modern technology is better able to deal with air and water quality issues, and the company is an open book for anyone who would like to ask questions about the project.

"They will directly hurt a local farm," Minion said of the effort against the plant.

Additionally, Wholestone announced plans in July to open what Minion has called a “custom slaughterhouse” in late October, just before the November election.

More: Pork plant plans to open 'custom slaughterhouse' before vote that could shut them down

Indeed, a small green building currently sits in the middle of Wholestone’s proposed site. Minion says once opened, customers will be able to choose a farmer who can provide a hog for butchering. That's always something the company planned to do, he said, although they had accelerated their plan.

"The petition of the group is quite clear that an existing slaughterhouse can be expanded," Minion has said.

Peterson said the move was "a flimsy attempt to sidestep the law and push their project through against the will of 10,000 citizens who signed our petition,” and accused TenHaken and the Sioux Falls City Council of siding with Wholestone.

Former U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson, who is representing Smart Growth Sioux Falls, made similar comments in a statement released alongside a civil complaint the group filed against Wholestone, TenHaken and the city’s eight city councilors. That complaint claims Wholestone "may not have all of the required permits and approvals they need.”

More: Smart Growth Sioux Falls files legal complaint against Wholestone, Mayor Paul TenHaken

The filing points to a state law saying the council “may take no action with respect to the subject matter of the petition that would alter or preempt the effect of the proposed petition,” although many of the permits referred to in the complaint are not issued through the council.

"The opposition suggests their proposed changes are in place now and have been over the past four-plus years,” Minion said in response. “This is simply not accurate. Wholestone has and is following all rules, regulations and processes put in place by voters over decades.”

But at an Oct. 11 court hearing, a South Dakota judge ruled that, in fact, the city should not have been providing the project with permits once the question had made it to the ballot.

The judge also gave Smart Growth Sioux Falls the opportunity to amend their legal complaint to ask that the certificate of occupancy recently given to Wholestone be rescinded via a writ of mandamus. But a week later, Hanson concurred with a brief submitted by Wholestone that cited a case in which the South Dakota Supreme Court had ruled that “mandamus is inapplicable to undo an act already done in violation of public or official duty.”

More: Wholestone court fight could go to trial after November election

A mandatory injunction, which would also undo the permits, is still a possibility. But Hanson said that was an action that would require a trial, witnesses and evidence, and would not occur before the Nov. 8 election.

Who has taken sides on the vote?

Citizens for a Sustainable Sioux Falls released a letter in April signed by more than 50 businesses and organizations asking TenHaken and the council to pause the project.

Signees included POET, the country's largest ethanol producer, local craft beer brewery Fernson Brewing Company and JDS Industries, a wholesale company for products and signs headquartered in Sioux Falls.

And when Smart Growth Sioux Falls filed its first campaign finance disclosure report earlier this year, many of the names matched up. Of the more than $90,000 raised, almost all of it came from five local companies.

POET LLC, and JDS Industries each donated $25,000, Elgethun Capital and Cellular Only 41st each donated $10,000 and GL Management, LLC donated $5,000. Another $10,000 came from Todd Broin, younger brother of POET CEO Jeff Broin.

More: POET, JDS Industries among companies funding opposition to Wholestone pork plant

Opposition to the ballot measure has come from the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, which said in a statement the ordinance “changes the rules in the middle of the game for a business that has followed all regulations set forth to date," and was “bad for the economic future of our city.”

The Chamber urged its members, which include businesses supporting the ordinance like POET, Bird Dog Equity Partners and GreatLIFE, to vote against the ordinance.

Gov. Kristi Noem has also criticized the opposition to the plant, telling radio host Bill Zortman the ballot measure “puts every single project we do in South Dakota in jeopardy in the future.”

Though she didn’t name them, Noem said a family had cited the fight over Wholestone when they decided not to bring a new food manufacturing plant to South Dakota, quoting them as saying, “We don't want a battle like that to be our family legacy.”

Former City Councilor Christine Erickson has also spoken out against the ordinance in her capacity as the executive director of the South Dakota Trucking Association, saying it sets a “damning” precedent.

"If somebody doesn't like your industry, somebody can just put it on the ballot,” Erickson said.

More: Noem says fight over Wholestone is driving business out of South Dakota

The SDTA was one of 16 signees of a letter encouraging residents to vote against the ordinance, saying overriding the city’s zoning process would have negative effects.

“If you’re borrowing millions of dollars to bring a new business to our community, you need to know that your investment will not be wasted," the letter stated.

Other signees included the South Dakota Retailers Association, the South Dakota Municipal League and the South Dakota Pork Producers Council.

Erickson is also chairing a ballot question committee called “Sioux Falls Open For Business,” which filed a statement of organization in September and aims to “oppose the November ballot measure to ban future slaughterhouse facilities in Sioux Falls.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls ballot guide to the slaughterhouse ban question