Proposed site of soybean crushing plant, located between Casselton and Tharaldson Ethanol Plant (White direction arrow)
CASSELTON, N.D. (KFGO) – After three hours of discussion, sometimes contentious, the Casselton City Planning and Zoning Committee approved a zoning change for a proposed state-of-the-art soybean crushing plant next to Casselton. The recommendation now goes to the city council for a vote next week. The property is zoned agricultural and needs to be re-zoned to heavy industrial in order to be built.
Committee Chairman Ed McConnell said there was surprise when the city was notified prior to the meeting that Tharaldson Ethanol is protesting the zoning change. The ethanol plant is near where the soybean facility would be built.
“They (Tharaldson) were concerned they were going to lose corn acreage to soy bean acreage. So they thought that if they could get the plant farther from their base of operations that they wouldn’t lose their local acreage,” McConnell said.
Todd McMichael, who has 400 acres of corn and soybeans on his Cass County farm, says there’s no reason for Tharaldson to protest about losing potential business.
“Corn is still king. You’re not going to change your crop rotation. Corn is still going to be your money-maker, and use your soy beans basically as a cash flow crop,” McMichael said.
Since Tharaldson owns more than 20% of the adjacent land, the company claimed city ordinance requires a super majority vote to pass the zoning change, something some say would prevent construction of the crushing plant.
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