Planning Commission approves TIF request, conditional use permit for Smithfield Foods

March 5, 2026

After nearly four hours of testimony Wednesday, the Sioux Falls Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit and tax increment financing district for the proposed new Smithfield Foods plant.

The meeting drew dozens of opponents, including nearby rural residents and citizens of Crooks.

The Planning Commission considered a conditional use permit because the project is less than 1,000 feet from some residential properties.

“The closest land use to this specific project is about 850 feet to those existing rural residential homes … north of Highway 130,” said Jason Bieber, city urban planner.

The city worked with Smithfield to orient the project’s wastewater treatment plant away from existing homes along Marion Road, “so that will be a completely enclosed facility,” Bieber said. He added that truck traffic will be steered toward the east end of the facility, so “we’re going to see a lot of those trucks go east onto I-29.”

Landscaping is required to screen nearby residences even though they are not in the city limits of Sioux Falls, he said. That includes a berm of about six or seven trees for every 100 feet as well as frontage trees — one tree for every 50 feet along multiple streets that serve the development, as well as one tree for every 18 parking spaces.

“So quite a few trees within their proposed parking lot area,” Bieber said. “Those should hopefully provide a pretty good buffer to those existing homes.”

Most of the building will be one story, reaching about 35 feet, with a couple of two-story areas up to 45 feet. The Amazon fulfillment center at Foundation Park has portions over 100 feet, and the nearby CJ Schwan’s project under construction has portions that are nearly 70 feet tall.

“This area, specifically Foundation Park and Foundation Park North, have been identified as heavy industrial since 2016 … and it’s mostly surrounded by existing heavy industrial uses to the east and south,” Bieber said. “The applicant has proposed the building as far south and east as we can get it.”

The railroad overpass on Marion Road will be worked on over the next year, city engineer Andy Berg said.

There will be a traffic signal installation at Marion and County Road 130, as well as plans for traffic signals at the intersections that will become employee access points.

“The intent is to keep that truck traffic going to the east … up north and over to I-29. That’s the simplest path,” Berg said. “We are actively working with the DOT (South Dakota Department of Transportation) on the improvements to the interchange as well. What that’s exactly going to look like is to be determined.”

Smithfield has retained Chicago-based Epstein as its design-build firm for the project. Epstein has a large portfolio of processing plants, including Sioux City’s Seaboard Triumph Foods pork processing facility and the Wholestone Farms headquarters in Fremont, Nebraska. Wholestone continues to own industrial land in northeast Sioux Falls.

“It’s going to be the most advanced of its kind, I’m sure, in the United States … and probably in the world,” said Jim Monroe, Smithfield vice president of corporate affairs.

“We did explore different locations in the country for this facility. We’re really happy with the decision to keep it here in Sioux Falls.”

The facility is an investment in American agriculture in addition to Sioux Falls and South Dakota, he said.

“The Sioux Falls plant is a critical driver of economic activity throughout the pork supply chain in this region,” Monroe said. “That’s from the farmers who grow the grain that we feed to our animals to the drivers … who help distribute our product and everything in between.”

Smithfield will design processes and leverage advanced technology to control odor, Monroe said.

“We will be able to enclose more processes in this new facility and better capture and eliminate odor-producing elements,” he said. “Animals, raw materials, byproducts, they’re not going to be sitting still very long, and that is a key part of managing odor.”

The site in downtown Sioux Falls is eight stories high in some sections and more than 115 years old.

“It’s really old,” Planning Commissioner Erik Nyberg said. “Once you see it, it’s really a sight to see, the age and some of the processes in there.”

Public testimony raised concerns about traffic control, speed and odor.

“We bought our house nine years ago. We knew what was going to happen. We knew what was going to come. We don’t oppose the development for what it is,” said Richard King, who lives nearby.

He encouraged city leaders to plan for the long-term future uses around County Road 130, to take a long-term approach with the landscape requirements for when trees die and to do more outreach in the area.

“Please reengage with the neighbors. There are neighbors that have not even been spoken to about this development that are on Marion Road. You have the moral obligation to work with them.”

Monte Burggraff, who lives along County Road 130, which is also known as 258th Street, directly north of the site, questioned what could happen on property designated for future expansion of Smithfield. That could result in a building less than 500 feet from the middle of the highway, he said, which puts it nearly at his home.

“That was going to be our future retirement home,” he said. “Now, I’ve contacted Realtors, and they won’t even touch it. They said ‘we’re not even going to look at it.’ I’m being told to wait (because) this could be a good thing, but right now our hearts are sunk. We’re devastated.”

He asked for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation to buy his property.

“They’ve already bought out five houses on the south side of the road. Come and buy us out, and give us the sweetheart deal that was on the south side of the road,” he said.

Roxy Wharton moved into her home on 10 acres two months before the Smithfield project was announced.

“This is a nightmare,” she said, adding that grew up on a hog farm in Madison.

“Never would I think out my front window would I be having a packing plant,” she said. “I knew something could happen there but never a slaughterhouse. … This was our dream home.”

She also asked for her property to be purchased.

“I’m pleading for my sanity,” she said. “I’m about to go crazy thinking about what’s going to happen out my window.”

The comments “are not lost on any of us,” Nyberg said. “But we have to balance what’s best for the city of Sioux Falls, and I truly do believe we need to move this project forward.”

Commissioner Janet Kittams agreed.

“My heart goes out to everybody who testified tonight. I heard your pain, absolutely. But … there’s 100,000 people that are not in this room tonight that stand to benefit tremendously from this project.”

The tax increment financing district will allow Smithfield to use up to $90 million of what it would pay in property taxes to be reimbursed for part of the construction of the wastewater treatment plant and site work.

The current 200-acre property at Foundation Park is valued at $1.95 million and is estimated to increase to $240 million, generating an additional $4.5 million each year in property tax.

The TIF is scheduled for a final vote of the City Council on March 17.

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