EAST TROY, Wis. — Hundreds of people live at the Honey Creek Apartments at the edge of East Troy along Highway 120. A pet food plant could become their new neighbor, which has become cause for concern.
An unnamed company revealed a proposal for a 187,000-square-foot pet food processing and distribution facility on Highway 120 just south of Interstate 43 during East Troy's Plan Commission meeting this month.
The site is directly across Highway 120 from the Honey Creek Apartments.
"I really have to ask: what the hell are you thinking?" Honey Creek resident Gwen Erickson said. "I came out to smell the dairy air, not to smell the dog food processing plant air. If that dog food plant goes in, I'm moving."
The processing plant proposal caught both tenants and the apartment complex's owners by surprise.
"We were fielding a ton of phone calls. The frustration there was not being able to say anything clearly to the people that were calling us," said Honey Creek Apartments general manager Mark Cummings-Hill. "Here we are a few weeks later and we still don't really have a better answer for them."
Cummings-Hill said he drove to a similar pet food processing facility in Germantown to understand how the plant could affect his residents if it is approved.
"I was there on a really nice day where the wind was blowing and there really wasn't much in the way of odor, but the question is what happens when it's 100 degrees out and 90 percent humidity?" Cummings-Hill said. "What happens when the air is still and not moving? Those are all unknowns to us."
The processing facility application was tabled during the Oct. 12 plan commission meeting. The note on the application's status page said it was placed on hold until the applicant can publicly disclose the potential user of the site.
Erickson hopes the company decides to take their application and find another place to build.
"When I moved in, I didn't think I would have to think about moving out," Erickson said. "I won't live next to a dog food processing plant. It wouldn't be my very first choice of where I'd want to live. Or my second. Or my tenth."
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