Pork producers who own a processing plant in Fremont include Gov. Jim Pillen, the plant received a $25 million federal grant. (Keith Weller/USDA Agricultural Research Service)
LINCOLN — A prominent pork producer’s plan to streamline and “take the emotion out” of approvals of new livestock operations generated a lot of negative emotions Wednesday.
That hog farmer, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, requested the introduction of a bill in the State Legislature to, as written, eliminate public hearings during county zoning board consideration of permits to allow large hog confinement operations, chicken farms and feedlots.
Those public hearings often get emotional, the governor said, forcing zoning board members to make decisions out of “subjective fears” instead of whether an operation meets all the county, state and federal rules.
Gov. Jim Pillen, a pork producer, has a sculpture of a pig on his desk. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
“The goal is simple: to smooth out the process of obtaining the proper permits and do business at the county level,” Pillen told members of the Legislature’s Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.