SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A municipal initiative petition received by the Sioux Falls City Clerk’s Office proposing an ordinance to prohibit the construction or permitting of any new slaughterhouse within city limits has been validated.

On July 11, the petition was validated as it contains the required number of signatures and is considered filed. Last week, the group called Smart Growth Sioux Falls announced it submitted more than 10,000 signatures.

Challenges to filed petitions may be made at the city clerk’s office at 235 West 10th Street, within five business days of filing and in accordance with state law.

City Clerk Tom Greco plans to present the petition to the city council at its meeting on Tuesday, July 19, where the council may also be presented with an ordinance to certify language to the Lincoln and Minnehaha County Auditors for placement of the question on the November general election ballot.

The petition started in response to Wholestone Farms, which announced in 2021 it purchased 175 acres in Sioux Falls near Interstate 229 and Benson Road for a hog processing plant. If passed by voters, the new city code would halt the Wholestone Farms project.

Luke Minion, CEO of Pipestone Holdings and Chairman of the board for Wholestone Farms, told KELOLAND News in April the location where Wholestone Farms bought land after years of working with the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the city of Sioux Falls and the Sioux Falls Development Foundation. 

Glenn Muller with the South Dakota Pork Producers Council told KELOLAND News the petition’s language would set a bad precedent for Sioux Falls. 

Both Minion and Muller have asked where Smart Growth Sioux Falls receives its funding. The ballot question committee will be required to submit campaign finance disclosure statements leading up to the election.