MARSHALL — There’s growing consumer interest in buying locally-processed meat, Marshall City Council Member Craig Schafer. But as of right now, Marshall’s city ordinances would make it impossible for a butcher shop or meat locker to do any slaughtering of animals in town.

The Marshall Council will be talking about changing that situation, at an upcoming public hearing. On Tuesday night, council members voted to introduce a proposed amendment to city ordinances that would allow limited slaughtering to be done in general business and industrial districts in town. They also called for a July 14 hearing on the proposal.

Marshall city staff said a business owner had approached the city about opening a butcher shop in town. The operations would involve some limited slaughtering of animals, staff said.

“We did a review of the ordinance, and this was impossible anywhere in the city,” said Marshall Assistant Planning and Zoning Administrator Ilya Gutman. Slaughtering operations at butcher shops aren’t currently included as a permitted or conditional use in any of Marshall’s zoning districts.

To help address the situation, the city could amend city ordinances to allow butcher shops with limited animal slaughtering as a conditional use in general business districts and limited and general industrial districts.

Gutman said the proposed amendment had been brought before both the Marshall Planning Commission and the city Legislative and Ordinance Committee earlier this month. Both groups recommended the council approve the changes.

Council member John DeCramer noted that in the proposed amendment, “limited slaughter” wasn’t a term with a strict legal definition. But, he said, it did mean that a butcher shop or meat locker that would do some animal slaughtering would be reviewed by the city. The city could place limits on the business — like limits on the number or type of animals slaughtered, for example.

Schafer said he supported the proposal.

“I think there’s a lot of demand from the public for this option,” with locally produced and processed meat, he said.

“This is not something new in the community,” Schafer said. Marshall already has animal processing within the city limits, with industries like the Turkey Valley Farms plant. The difference, he said, was this would be at a smaller scale, in a butcher shop.

Council members voted to introduce the proposed ordinance amendment, and called for a July 14 public hearing on the proposal.