In a less than neighborly attempt to re-develop their property, ButterBall LLC (Longmont Turkey Processors) is asking the city of Longmont to vacate Emery Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue and to give it to them for free as development property. This is a value of about the $750,000.00 plus range. ButterBall's prior parent company, ConAgra, unsuccessfully petitioned Longmont to vacate that portion of Emery Street in the interest of Homeland Security during 2003 and again in 2005. The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial of both applications and nothing has since changed.

ButterBall claims that because their spice storage building is east of Emery Street, it cannot be secured as part of the plant and therefore, is in "noncompliance" with Homeland Security regulations and this noncompliance could impact their ability to contract with their customers and in turn jeopardize their future in Longmont. They failed to provide a copy of these alleged regulations for the record. Why did they purchase this plant while being aware of this alleged (or maybe pretend) noncompliance since 2003 when their then parent company, ConAgra filed the first application to vacate the street?

ButterBall could secure this plant by moving the 50 car parking lot from the plant grounds to across Main or Emery, put the truck loading doors on the North side of the freezer building (angled or straight in) and construct a spice building on the East end of the freezer then install a security fence around the plant. This would mitigate the public nuisance and safety hazard of habitual staging and maneuvering their trucks on Emery city Street where the people have a right to travel and ButterBall has only a privilege to conduct business, which the city is duty bound to regulate.

Vacating Emery Street would blight the area by limiting area access and allow ButterBall to expand their nonconforming use (blight conditions) over about 50,000 additional sq feet. Also, this plant is located in an overlay district that requires redevelopment to support multi modal transportation uses.