Sussex board delays vote on Allen Harim plant
Residents against the proposed Allen Harim Foods LLC chicken deboning plant near Millsboro will have to wait two more weeks for Sussex County Board of Adjustment to decide the fate of the plan.
At its April 16 meeting, the board voted 3-0 to table the application and place it on the Monday, May 7 agenda.
The board wants all eligible board members in attendance to discuss the application before taking a vote. Board member John Mills was absent due to an emergency, leaving only three eligible members to vote. Board member Ellen Magee recused herself because she did not attend the March 19 public hearing on the application.
Allen Harim has filed for a special-use exception to convert 50,000 square feet of a 453,000-square-foot building it owns on Pinnacle Way into a deboning operation. Another 20,000 square feet of the facility is being renovated into the company's corporate headquarters.
Under the proposal, processed chicken would be trucked from Allen Harim's Harbeson plant to Millsboro for deboning, packaging and shipping. The plant would process about 2 million pounds of chicken per week, operating with one shift. Officials said they would hire 165 employees.
The facility, used as a pickle processing plant for 40 years, is on land zoned HI-1, heavy industrial.
The waste bone material would be shipped back to the Harbeson plant for disposal. Until the plant is fully operational, wastewater would also be trucked to the Harbeson plant for treatment. The company requires permits from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control for both operations.
