In our opinion
February 8, 2003
It is time for celebration in and around the Spring
Brook subdivision on Gate Five Road near Alexandria. For the first
time in years, residents of the area can be comforted by the thought
that a stinking, noisy, dirty as all get out, industrial-sized hog
slaughterhouse will no longer be operating in the middle of their
residential area.
We could not be happier for them. For the neighbors of
Diamond Meat Co.’s slaughterhouse have seen their quality of
life erode in a serious way in the last few years. The death squeals
of hogs, the sickening smell of excrement, the teeming flies and mosquitoes
and the rumble and slosh of the ever-present render trucks long ago
forced old folks, little children and the strong indoors.
Life along this part of Gate Five Road stunk to high
heaven and that alone sent property prices into the cesspool.
Celebrate, then that Diamond Meat Co. settled this case
in Judge Joel Laird’s courtroom, agreed to shut down and agreed
to put a covenant on the deed protecting the property from similar
facilities in the future.
But be aware that this kind of thing could happen in just about
any unincorporated area of this state. When a hog farm crops up next
door to a residential area it is a symptom of the sickness of our
1901 Constitution.
This problem could be fixed if only our county commission
had some zoning authority. A constitutional rewrite would fix that
problem, but that will be a while in coming. In the meantime, there
is another way. Our elected delegation to Montgomery could draw up
a bill handing our commission the right to zone industrial animal
facilities such as Diamond.
Right now the only recourse residents of our county have
against these kinds of operations is to go to court at great expense
and, as the Gate Five Rode case showed, a great deal of time. (The
case had been pending for years.)
Planning, real planning, at the county level would protect
people and property values.
We urge the delegation to submit such a bill before this
happens again.
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