Zoning Changes For Chobani Plant Breeze Through Council
01.01.70
TWIN FALLS • With great fanfare, TwinFalls city and urban
renewal officials Thursday announced Greek yogurt maker Chobani
plans to build a facility in the city, and approved a redevelopment
agreement to start that process.
That same work continued on Monday, but a little more quietly.
The council, by votes of 6-0, breezed through a public hearing and
two votes to rezone part of Chobani’s future home from commercial
to heavy manufacturing. The change affected 58 acres of the
190-acre site, located at the southwest corner of Kimberly Road and
3300 East Road.
With the company planning to break ground in a few weeks and
start producing yogurt in eight months, officials stressed the need
for preparation. Chobani, part of New York-based parent company
Agro Farma, will employ about 400 people when it opens.
“We need to get moving on it,” said Mitch Humble, community
development director for Twin Falls.
Councilman Trip Craig, who is recovering from surgery, was
absent.
Source: Twin Falls Times-News
Yogurt maker looking to locate facility in Carson City, bringing up to 1500 ...
01.01.70
One of the issues that was discussed around here over the past months is the impact a plant like this would have on the city's water and sewer systems. I was told the plant's requirements could take up nearly all of the excess capacity of these systems.
The possibility of the company locating in Carson City also had an indirect role in the debate over the Nugget Project . You might remember a late development in this project was using newly-raised landfill fees to pay for part of the city's share, instead of the 1/8th cent sales tax increase that had been on the table before that.
I was told privately at the time that part of the impetus for not using sales taxes for this was to keep that 1/8th cent option open if it might be needed to increase capacity of the city's water and sewer systems to accommodate the Chobani yogurt plant. The city is prohibited from raising sales taxes more than 1/8th cent before hitting the state-mandated cap.
Of course, it also helped that not raising taxes was politically helpful in getting the controversial Nugget Project approved .
Source: Carson Now