By Brad Phenow

Faribault Daily News

FARIBAULT — Jennie-O Turkey Store in Faribault is hoping to get construction underway on its 17,521-square-foot addition within the next 30 days.

Upon completion, John Hotek, director of engineering for Jennie-O Turkey Store, told the council it’ll take roughly 20 to 25 new skilled employees to operate, maintain and manage the state-of-the-art equipment.

The timeline follows the Faribault City Council approving two variances and a conditional use permit.

The two variances are a result of parking issues and additional impervious coverage. The expansion also required a CUP due to the location within the Shoreland Management District.

However, with the addition, the site will only see a slight increase — from 90 percent to 90.1 percent — of impervious coverage. The Department of Natural Resources originally recommended denying the project due to wastewater concerns and Councilor John Rowan raised concern with the plans being carried out. But additional work has been done by Jennie-O to alleviate some of the concerns, said Faribault City Planner David Wanberg. A swale, designed to act as a filter for runoff, and green areas and native grasses are proposed to help with runoff.

“The company has a track record of not completing what they’re setting up to [do],” Rowan explained.

However, with a development agreement put in place, the city will look to ensure the company does as promised. Wanberg added that the city won’t issue a certificate of occupancy unless the work is complete.

And for the CUP, “slaughter of animals” is a legal, nonconforming use that may continue as per the nonconforming provisions, according to Wanberg.

Where the discussion focused on Tuesday, however, was around parking.

Currently, the site has 286 existing parking spaces. Due to the expansion and related site work, 44 existing parking spaces will be eliminated, resulting in 242 on-site parking spaces. Based on city standards, the site needs to provide 267 spaces, 25 more than planned.

But since the project went before the planning commission, the applicant has continued to look for additional ways to provide enough spaces, such as moving parked trailers, Wanberg said.

“The applicant has been proactively looking for ways to acquire land for additional plans,” Wanberg said, before noting they have yet to be finalized as it’s a timely process. Like the runoff concerns, the city approved the variance with a condition stating the certificate for occupancy will not be issued until all unresolved parking issues have been resolved.

But for Councilor Janna Viscomi, that wasn’t enough.

The plant has roughly 490 employees, and before the bird flu outbreak, it had nearly 600. But some shifts are busier than others and with the added equipment, Viscomi feared if the number of employees would go up beyond what is proposed, there wouldn’t be adequate parking.

“My concern is they’re not running at full speed and we’re under the full amount of parking,” she said. “They don’t have to come back to us to hire more people.”

Wanberg said Jennie-O is as concerned as anyone, and it’s taking the parking very seriously.

“I think the parking issues need to be addressed,” said Mayor John Jasinski. “But I would hate to see the project get held up. I think if we can hit the short-term goals to get them going and come up with a plan for the long-term parking issues, it’ll be a win-win for everyone.”

And the majority of the council agreed, approving the variances and CUP with conditions. Viscomi was the lone opposing councilor.