County officials are expected to consider a text amendment that would allow farm-based slaughterhouses in the agricultural district following a favorable recommendation by the planning commission.
Agricultural land on Croppers Island Road off Route 113 is pictured.
File photo
By Charlene Sharpe, Associate Editor
Worcester County officials are expected to consider a text amendment that would allow farm-based slaughterhouses in the agricultural district following a favorable recommendation by the planning commission.
Commissioners voted April 4 to support a text amendment that would allow a slaughterhouse as a special exception use in the A-1 agricultural district provided it’s on the farm where the livestock are raised. The amendment was submitted on behalf of Bob Ewell, who already operates a roadside stand off Route 113 and Croppers Island Road selling his farm-raised beef.
“It’s a way for Mr. Ewell, who is growing this cattle, to be able to slaughter his own cattle on his own property,” said Mark Cropper, Ewell’s attorney.
Cropper said Ewell had been raising cattle on Croppers Island Road for decades. While he sells his beef at the roadside stand he built, Cropper said he had to transport it out of state to have it butchered. He said they came up with the text amendment so that Ewell wouldn’t have to ship the cattle to have them butchered.
According to county staff, the slaughtering of livestock is currently only allowed as a special exception use in the industrial district. As drafted, the text amendment would permit the slaughtering of livestock raised on the farm property where the activity is to occur. It would not allow the slaughter of livestock from other farms.
Cropper said in Ewell’s case, the butchering would be done in a facility no larger than 600 square feet that would be built at the farm, a significant distance from any neighboring homes.
“I think what everybody needs to understand is, for the purposes of slaughtering a cow, the cow walks in the back door, they shut the back door. Steaks come out the other end,” Cropper said. “You don’t see it. You don’t hear it. You don’t smell it. You don’t even know it’s happening. Everything is completely enclosed.”
He added that even if the commissioners approved the text amendment, Ewell would still have to go to the Worcester County Board of Zoning Appeals for special exception approval.
“This would be enabling legislation that would give him this opportunity,” Cropper said.
While citizens in attendance were not given the chance to comment on the proposed amendment since the public hearing on the issue will come at a meeting of the Worcester County Commissioners, Jerry Barbierri, chair of the commission, acknowledged that some of Ewell’s neighbors objected to the proposal. Issues they raised included water quality and quiet enjoyment of the neighborhood.
Commission member Mary Knight said she’d visited the site and thought it was far enough away from any homes that it wouldn’t have a negative impact. Commission member Kathy Drew pointed out that with his agricultural land, Ewell was permitted a variety of farm uses, some of which would be more impactful to neighbors than butchering cattle.
“Hogs smell a lot worse than chickens or cattle,” she said.