City announces a ‘ somewhat confidential ‘ $800 million slaughterhouse economic development project could be coming to Susanville

Tamra Spade, Susanville’s economic development director, updated the city council and the public on economic development activities in the city this past year through a PowerPoint presentation at the Susanville City Council’s Wednesday, Dec. 18 meeting.

Spade addressed the economic development activities the city has embarked upon in the past year including business outreach, strategic partnerships, attracting investment, marketing and promotion, Placer.ai and business resources.

But during her presentation, she also had a slide about an $800 million economic development project the city is working on — perhaps the largest in the city’s history.

The Beef Project
“And then there’s the beef project,” Spade said. “GOBiz, they usually will put out or advise some larger projects from the state, and we went ahead and we applied for this and submitted our proposal, and I was told that there were two cities selected and Susanville was one of those. With that said, it ended up being Susanville that the owner was interested in.”

GOBiz is the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development that serves as the state of California’s leader for job growth, economic development and business assistance efforts in the world’s fifth largest economy.

According to the GOBiz website, “We offer no-cost consultation to business owners for attraction, retention and expansion services, site selection, permit streamlining, clearing of regulatory hurdles, small business assistance, international trade development, assistance with state government and much more.”

Spade said she’s been working on this project and “even if it comes to fruition, it’s probably going to be years out, but it would be great for Susanville if it does happen.”

She said the principal is looking at 500 acres of land, a million square foot building and wanting to use 1.5 million gallons of water per day, “and that was one of the reasons that we were selected is because we could provide that. So, we have a lot of the resources in the area specifically that they were looking for.”

She said the beef project would employ 1,600 workers.

“It would be really good for us if it happens,” Spade said. “Some of the partnerships that we’ve put together — calls with this owner and moving forward with the Lassen Municipal Utility District, Susanville Sanitary District, Union Pacific, city of Susanville, Lassen County and the Indian Rancheria.”

Spade said these partnerships are the key to making the project work.

“It takes everybody working together to make things happen,” Spade said.

Mayor Mendy Schuster asked the public if they had any comments.

Local business owner David Teeter praised Spade as a “well-trained professional who does know her business.”

He said as a Main Street business owner economic development is the most important activity the city should be looking at, “and that comes down to leadership. We need comprehensive plans for this and we need it yesterday.”

An unidentified member of the public asked for more information about the beef project.

Spade said, “Right now it’s somewhat confidential — it would be a slaughterhouse that also supplies products that are shipped out for other products.”

This member of the public said he was interested in the production of organic beef in Lassen County.

“What kind of beef would be produced there?” he asked. “I’m very concerned what kind of chemicals would be used. I think that really needs to be addressed. We now have, according to all estimates, the sickest children in all the entire developed world, mostly attributed to toxins in our food. I would be very concerned about where the cattle are coming from and how they’re being processed.”

“These are discussions that we can have,” Spade said. “I will tell you that the Susanville Rancheria, it did come up about raising organic cattle and having them part of that process.”

“That would be so good,” the member of the public said. “How do I get involved in helping talk about this?”

Resident Matt Jennings asked about the city’s capacity to provide the beef project with 1.5 million gallons of water per day.

Public Works Director Bob Godman said that would be about 5 percent of the city’s capacity. He said the city sells about 640 million gallons of water per year, and the city could produce about 1.7 billion gallons per year.

“As far as production, we’re fine,” Godman said.

Business owner Kelly Thompson thanked the council for it’s efforts, but she said, “We need outcomes. We need outcomes about how we’re going to bring dollars into the businesses and not just how we’re going to provide businesses tools to start. (We need) businesses to stay. We don’t see the number of businesses that close. We don’t see the number of people who weren’t able to provide Christmas because they want to keep their doors open. I think the beef project is interesting, but that the right project? Do you guys even know the kind of businesses we need? Drawing that much water is an opportunity cost. Are you willing to give up that opportunity cost?”

“I think it’s really important when we look at these big opportunities, to understand is it the right one and not just jump on one because it was given to us,” she continued. “It needs to be more than a marketing program. We need to have teeth in the game. There are a lot of good people in this town who have put everything on the line all the time to try and make their minimum happen, and I would really like to see from this board in a measurable way steps toward supporting the business owners instead of stopping them or producing barriers to growth.”

Spade also mentioned the new truck stop that is coming (a project that’s been talked about for years) and the news businesses in Uptown Susanville.