Judge dismisses lawsuit against Wholestone, city of Sioux Falls over pork processing plant

A Minnehaha County judge has dismissed a lawsuit between the city of Sioux Falls, Wholestone Farms and a group that looked to oppose the company's plans to build a $500 million pork processing plant in northeastern Sioux Falls.

Judge Sandra Hanson dismissed the case in a court order Tuesday, without prejudice or costs to any party, ending Smart Growth Sioux Falls' attempts to argue that the city should not have been giving permits to Wholestone once a proposed slaughterhouse ban had made it to the Nov. 8 ballot.

The decision closes a nearly three-month court battle that at times seemed to be going well for Smart Growth Sioux Falls, at least before the defeat of the slaughterhouse ban in a 48%-52% vote meant that the lawsuit was largely moot.

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Hanson said in October she agreed the city was wrong in continuing to permit Wholestone's "custom slaughterhouse" once the ballot measure was set, but all the necessary permits had been provided, meaning Smart Growth Sioux Falls' request for preliminary injunction wasn't applicable.

Hanson gave the group time to file for a writ of mandamus, an order from the court that could rescind some of the permits. But she later agreed with a legal brief filed by Wholestone that cited a case in which the South Dakota Supreme Court had said that "mandamus is inapplicable to undo an act already done in violation of public or official duty."

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A mandatory injunction was the remaining possibility, Hanson said, but that would require significantly more work, including a trial. That wasn't something that would take place before the election, she added.

Nearly $1.5 million was spent between Smart Growth Sioux Falls and Sioux Falls Open For Business, a pro-Wholestone ballot question committee chaired by former councilor Christine Erickson. More than $1 million of that money came from Sioux Falls-based ethanol producer POET in donations to Smart Growth Sioux Falls.

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Wholestone board chairman Luke Minion said the dismissal was "the right decision" in a text message, and Councilor Marshall Selberg, one of three councilors who spoke out against the proposed ban, called it, "Another good day for Wholestone and for Sioux Falls.

Robert Peterson, the treasurer for Smart Growth Sioux Falls, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.