Washington Zoning Appeals Board votes down application allowing worker housing at Perdue

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An application that would’ve allowed 14 mobile home units near the Perdue Plant in Washington to house plant workers was denied last night by the Washington Board of Zoning Appeals.

Allegiant Staffing plans to contract with Perdue to provide workers at the turkey processing plant to help to alleviate a worker shortage at the plant.  Rodney Schluterman of Allegiant said Perdue contacted them to assist in the staffing shortage. He said Perdue was down 100 to 200 workers per shift.  Allegiant had hired Landmark Surveying to represent them in the matter of asking for a variance to place infrastructure on Cosby Road near the plant for 14 mobile units that would’ve housed 8 people per unit with an option to add  8 more units in the future.  The housing would be specifically used for the workers employed by Allegiant working at Perdue.  Schluterman said the workers would primarily be from Puerto Rico, are US citizens and undergo background checks are are vetted.

The standing room only crowd at the Washington City Council Chambers included several who signed up to speak.  When the floor was opened for comments…Bert Mattingly who lives adjacent to where the housing would be located stated safety and property value losses as reasons for not wanting the units near him…

Several others reiterated Mattingly’s comments….

At times the comments steered toward feelings about ethnicity and cultural differences between those who would be working for Perdue and others already in the city.  Those comments were shut down more than once by board president Don Spillman who did his best to keep the discussion related only to the requests before the appeals board.  Other discussion centered around what some felt was a lack on Perdue’s part to pay what they called a decent wage.  Some believed if they paid more, residents in the city would be be willing to take the jobs at the plant as opposed to bringing in workers from elsewhere.

Nicole Ruble made a brief comment to the board saying in essence they are those Washington natives whose own social challenges prevents them working.  She encouraged the community to help them…

At the end of the over two hour meeting, the appeals board voted unanimously not to grant the application for a variance.  After that, Helms withdrew a conditional use application which spelled out the specifics of the use of the land had a variance been granted.

Spillman attributed the unanimous vote to the board’s feelings about the location of the worker housing units…

Schluterman was disappointed with the decision but said he understands the community’s concerns…

It was stated that there are already about two dozen Allegiant employees in the city.  Other options were said to be explored by Allegiant to house their employees.