The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners Tuesday decided not to rezone a piece of land near the Petran exit of Interstate 90 to allow for the construction of a livestock buying station where a golf course once existed.

The commissioners also voted against a conditional-use permit to put the project in the proposed location but voiced support for the project going elsewhere in the county. The Petran exit is I-90’s Exit 166, about 2 1/2 miles east of Hayward. The main landmark at the interchange is a KOA campground. How the smell of hogs would impact that business troubled the commissioners.

“I think this board sees the opportunity that this is special property on an interchange, but that doesn’t mean the end of having a buying station in Freeborn County,” said Board Chairman Dan Belshan. “Why can’t we have both?”

Lynch Livestock, headquartered in Waucoma, Iowa, had proposed bringing in a hog transfer station that would have paid out an estimated annual $1.1 million to local pork producers plus an estimated annual $2.8 million in economic spinoff, according to John Slavin, regional manager for the company. About 19,000 pigs would go through the facility each year.

Slavin said the location right off the interstate was ideal for the company.

“That’s the best place I could possibly see for the buying station,” he said.

The land where the project was planned was on a portion of what was formerly known as the Holiday Park Golf Course.

Randy and Tammy Fett sold the nine-hole course and driving range in May to Lynch Livestock. The course went unsold after an attempt at an auction in March. They told the Tribune for a May story that the course wasn’t being used enough.

Because the 43-acre parcel was zoned as a planned development district, Lynch Livestock was asking it get rezoned as agricultural.

While a few of the commissioners pointed out that the buying station would be beneficial for the smaller pork producers in the county, it may have some drawbacks as well.

One of those drawbacks was the impact it would have on the neighboring KOA campground — with any potential smells or general perceptions. The commissioners also expressed concern about the facility’s effect on attracting future commercial or industrial developments to the Petran interchange.

“This is a valuable asset,” said Randy Hulett, owner of the KOA campground. “This is prime real estate for the county.”

Hulett said he was worried that the buying station could potentially drive off other businesses that want to relocate in that area. He also said he was concerned with the potential odor that could come from the business.

He noted that more than 90 percent of his business at the campground is from people who live out of state. He said it only takes one or two negative posts on an Internet camping website to deter business.

He added he has put in a lot of money and energy into the campground since he purchased it 3 1/2 years ago with the hope that one day the interchange could take off and be something big.

Two other people who live within a mile of the site also voiced opposition to the project.

Keith Jahnson, one pork producer from northeastern Freeborn County, said he thought the facility would have been a benefit to him. He noted he liked the proposed location.

The interchange had been rezoned to a planned development district in 2004 after a proposal came up to put in a waterpark near the exit. That development never took place.