Plans to build a 90-million dollar seed corn production plant near Waterloo are in jeopardy. The Black Hawk County Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday voted four-to-two to deny the Monsanto Company’s request to rezone land for the project in a rural area south of the city.
The commission’s decision followed a three-hour public hearing that was attended by about 100 people, the majority of whom were opposed to the project. The new state-of-the-art facility would be part of a $231 million dollar expansion by Monsanto at four Iowa locations and an overall $610 million dollar company-wide expansion.
The Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors now has the final say. To overturn the vote, four of the county’s five supervisors will need to support the project at the board’s January 29th meeting.
Audio: Elwin Huffman report. :40 MP3
