Vote on poultry slaughter delayed

Judy Odierna

Friday, Feb. 14, 2003 | 11:20 a.m.

Dozens of residents made emotional pleas to the Las Vegas Planning Commission on Thursday to deny a zoning change that would allow the slaughtering of poultry in certain areas of the city.

After hearing the commentary, members of the Planning Commission decided that they needed more time to review the many questions still surrounding the matter.

They voted unanimously to hold the item until their April 24 meeting.

"The issue requires more scrutiny," Commissioner Craig Galati said. "I want to see the health department's regulations. I want to understand more about the number of birds processed in a day (and) about the waste removal before I feel comfortable moving forward with something like this."

The proposed change would apply to limited commercial zoning, also known as C-1 zoning, which includes most retail shops and is usually located on the periphery of residential neighborhoods.

The zoning change, which would also need to be approved by the City Council, would mean any business in the city with C-1 zoning could seek similar permission to kill and process chickens. Special use permits require public hearings, however, and each case would have to come before both the Planning Commission and the City Council.

Though Chairman Richard Truesdell discouraged speakers from naming any particular establishment, many who were against the change were there because of the Liborio Market, 930 N. Lamb Blvd., which is seeking to put a poultry slaughter and processing center on site.

The market, in eastern Las Vegas, opened last week.

In 2001, the City Council rezoned the Liborio Market lot to allow limited commercial use but deleted any industrial uses for which the killing of live birds would have been allowed.

Last month, representatives for Liborio Market sought to amend the general plan to rezone the area back to industrial, but the Planning Commission decided to postpone any decision.

John Alejo, one of the owners of Liborio said they are trying to work with residents to ease concerns and offered to take as many as were interested to their store in Los Angeles.

Alejo said only nine took them up on the offer.

"Some just don't want it at all," he said. "The other group have seen the process and now, especially the people who went to L.A. they are okay with it."

Rather than give the market the industrial zoning, which permits uses such as manufacturing and sexually oriented business, city staff recommended allowing the use in the C-1 zoning to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

There are also requirements from the Clark County Health District that any future establishment would have to follow. They would be prohibited from keeping live birds on the premises for an extended period of time and also prohibit waste from going directly into the sewer system.

The regulations also mandate that slaughtering and processing take place in a chamber separated from other areas of the market and that the store contract with a private firm experienced in handling remains.

The city would also add that the applicant must store the live birds in an enclosed structure on the site where processing would take place and that the slaughtered birds be sold on-site.