SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A lawsuit from a group of Crooks-area landowners against the Sioux Falls City Council related to a new Smithfield plant is scheduled for a 10:30 a.m. Monday court hearing in Minnehaha County.
The lawsuit questions the transparency of the city’s process. City, Development Foundation and Smithfield officials announced in February Smithfield plans to build a new pork processing plant in the Foundation Park in northwestern Sioux Falls.
Foundation Park is owned by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.
A group of about 21 landowners (some listed as couples) filed a lawsuit challenging the conditional use permit process used by the city of Sioux Falls. The heart of the lawsuit says that since the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, which is not a city organization, bought property from homeowners near the new planned Smithfield development, several other nearby landowners should have received a similar opportunity…