Hog Feedlot Controversy
US - A judge is considering new evidence in a feed lot controversy. Holden Farms is building a feed lot ten miles south of Austin that will hold eventually up to five-thousand hogs.The company bought the land from Lowell Franzen. Franzen also works for Mower County. Neighbours claim he used his position to get the needed permits to build the confinement operation. The court ruled last month there was no foul play.
What neighbours want now is to have zoning and feedlot permits for the project revoked. Nearly twenty neighbors packed an Austin court room Wednesday. They're already sick of the smell they say is being created by their newest neighbor; A feed lot in Lyle.
Illegal permits?
"The summer is going to tell the story. Ninety percent of our summer air comes from the south," said neighbor Tim Carroll. The neighbour’s lawyer says it shouldn't have gone up in the first place. He believes the way the permits were obtained was illegal."With his own office, with his own emails on business time to obtain a permit in his own name for a project he had already sold," said the neighbor’s attorney Jim Peters.
Wednesday in court Peters showed the judge how Lowell Franzen first obtained a zoning and feed lot permit. Franzen then sold the land to Holden Farms. But a defense attorney says Franzen played by the rules, and this new evidence is illegitimate.
Source: Kimt.com