On Monday night, the DeKalb City Council unanimously allowed Cavel International Inc., a horse slaughtering plant, to send a special-use zoning permit to the Planning Commission for a slaughterhouse/meat packing facility.

Cavel lawyer Brett Brown requested the passage of the special zoning-use permit to move the company to a new 28,000 square foot facility 500 feet up the road from its current location at 108 Harvestore Drive. The DeKalb Planning Commission voted against an initial permit for the Belgium-based company on Sept. 12 because of zoning regulations regarding the practice of horse slaughtering and outrage from community members and businesses.

Brown asserted that the city staff continues to support the company’s plan to move, but the Planning Commission unexpectedly opposed the plans.

Commission members had to decide whether the new facility would have an “unreasonable detrimental impact” on the value of neighboring real estate. In theory, a single person declaring he would not buy land in a given place would have a “detrimental impact.”

Cavel International must prove its occupation of the new facility would have no such impact. Consequently, Cavel International would like the opportunity to present expert witnesses before the commission, before the petition’s first reading.

Cavel is willing to continue renting the old facility for a few years after occupying the new facility as a backup, just in case the city council rules that the new facility is a nuisance and the operations have to be moved a second time.

The city staff has estimated that Cavel may rent the first facility for up to two years and retain “grandfather” zoning status for the building.

“I would rather see the old facility renovated than have the company move,” 3rd Ward Ald. Steve Kapitan said, adding that a second company in the same industry could move into the old facility.

Kapitan also expressed concern that a company dealing with pork or cattle might move in the facility, but he was assured by city attorney Margo Ely that if this hypothetical company became a real nuisance, the zoning could be changed on the old facility, forcing operations there to close.