New vote approves chicken slaughterhouse in Aurora
A specialty butcher shop will be able to slaughter and sell chickens and other poultry in Aurora after all.
In the second vote on the shop, the Aurora City Council on Tuesday night approved 8-4 a conditional-use permit for Fermin’s Poultry to open at 629 S. River St., across the street from Aurora Animal Control.
“I do think this gentleman should have the opportunity to run his business here in Aurora,” Alderman Richard Irvin said.
Speaking through a translator, the shop’s operator, Aurora resident Fermin Benitez, said he is excited for the chance to open a second location of Fermin’s Poultry and hopes to have the shop running in about four months.
Aldermen-at-large Irvin and Bob O’Connor both changed their stances to support Fermin’s Poultry in this second vote, made possible by a string of events uncommon in municipal government.
The city council first voted on the conditional-use permit April 26 with two aldermen absent, voting 6-5 in favor of Fermin’s Poultry, with Mayor Tom Weisner casting the deciding vote. Aurora officials thought the ordinance passed, then realized it needed at least seven favorable votes to be approved under city code.
Code also allows aldermen to ask for a second vote under these circumstances, a request aldermen Rick Lawrence and Juany Garza made last week.
Before the revote, Rene Cruz, president of the Aurora Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, reminded aldermen the issue should not be an emotional one, clouded by personal views on eating meat or slaughtering animals, but an economic one, driven by the opportunity to support an entrepreneur and build a business-friendly reputation.
“This is a gentleman who’s made a successful business doing exactly what it takes to get food to the table,” Cruz said. “He’s generating the opportunity for us to be able to invest in our own people.”
In reconsidering his vote, O’Connor decided enough regulations are in place to ensure the business runs a sanitary shop, making him willing to accept Fermin’s Poultry.
According to the conditional-use permit, the shop must submit written notice of any report received from or violation recorded by the Kane County Health Department or the Illinois Department of Agriculture to Aurora’s property standards division.
The Kane County Health Department will inspect the retail butcher shop aspect of the business, and the Illinois Department of Agriculture will be responsible for ensuring the cleanliness of the slaughterhouse side, said Greg Maurice, assistant director for environmental health at the Kane County Health Department.
Other conditions require the butcher shop to improve the property’s fencing, landscaping, parking lots and building facades. Live animal deliveries must be screened from River Street, and the city can initiate a public hearing about revocation of the conditional-use permit “if there is any evidence of repeated violations of any kind,” according to the ordinance.
A few people shook Benitez’s hand and wished him luck as they left the meeting.
Speaking through a translator, Benitez said it was hard to convince people he could run his business in Aurora, but now he is prepared to invest in renovating the vacant foundry so he can sell freshly slaughtered poultry.