Nerditorial: The Packinghouse Zone

You're traveling through another dimension -- a dimension not only of sight and sound but of smell. A journey into an agricultural land whose malodorous boundaries are limited only by imagination and the smell of carcass funk. That's a signpost up ahead: your next stop: the Packinghouse Zone!

Imagine that you are living in the unincorporated part of Whatcom County.

Imagine further that one of your neighbors wants to build a slaughter facility... say, a 10,000 square-foot slaughter facility... adjacent to your property. 

Do you want any sort of notice before construction begins?

You won't get any once you live in... The Packinghouse Zone.

Case in point, one Agenda Bill 2012-300b.

This bill, if passed into law, would allow for a packinghouse (a slaughterhouse that also packs meat) to be built as an accessory use structure on ag-zoned land in the County. That would be a permitted use. So, if a citizen desired to build a packinghouse out in the unincorporated County, then that citizen's neighbors would not know about it until after construction began, provided the packinghouse was no larger than 10,000 square feet.

If a land owner wanted to build a packinghouse larger than 10,000 square-feet, that would be allowed as a conditional use. As a conditional use, there would need to be public notice and a hearing before construction could begin.

It is also worth mention that AB2012-300b provides for no statutory limit on how large a packinghouse could be on ag-zoned land.

A slaughterhouse is explicitly prohibited in ag-zoned land. And should AB2012-300b pass, slaughterhouses will still be prohibited. But a packinghouse, which is a slaughterhouse and a meat packing facility, would be permitted as an accessory use. The unintended implication of this bill is that a slaughterhouse is not permitted on ag-zoned land on the grounds that it is not an intense enough use of ag-zoned land.

I live in Bellingham. No one is going to be building a packinghouse anywhere near my home. I don't live in... The Packinghouse Zone... So, I'm not really in a position to drive home a point to the County Council on this matter.

This bill enjoys the support of enough votes on County Council to pass. It also enjoys the aggressive support of a handful of members of the ag-community, who are lobbying vigorously to persuade the Council that this is widely supported in the unincorporated portion of the County.

So, if you live out in the unincorporated county, or anywhere near ag-zoned land, and you are not interested in seeing a packinghouse spring up anywhere in the ag-zone... at anytime... without notice... you might want to contact the Members of Council and say something.

This is your land... and your property values... that will be affected by passage of this bill... placing you inside... The Packinghouse Zone...

'Nerd Out.