Sioux Falls Open for Business organizes to block November slaughterhouse vote

Former City Councilor Christine Erickson chairing campaign committee

Construction on a Wholestone Farms butcher shop is underway in northeast Sioux Falls. (Joe Sneve / The Dakota Scout)

Sioux Falls Open for Business formally filed its statement of organization as a municipal ballot question committee with the City Clerk’s Office on Tuesday morning with a goal of blocking passage of the measure — a push by Smart Growth Sioux Falls to stop Wholestone Farms LLC from building a large-scale pork plant in the city’s northeast quadrant.

“The committee supports value added agriculture in Sioux Falls and specifically opposes the proposed slaughterhouse ordinance,” reads the filing, which lists Christine Erickson as the committee’s chairperson and Lorin Pankratz as treasurer.

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Erickson, also serving as the campaign’s president, termed out as a Sioux Falls City Council member in June and now serves as executive director of both the South Dakota Automobile Dealers Association and South Dakota Trucking Association. Pankratz is a well-known lobbyist who has represented dozens of special interest groups and trade organizations at the state Capitol for decades.