City takes meatpacker out of city limits so it can qualify for a rural business loan from USDA

The City Council of Corpus Christi, Tex., has lopped off part of the city limits so a meatpacking company can get a rural business loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It's the latest lesson in how the widely varying federal definitions of "rural" can be manipulated.

Sam Kane Beef Processors has been in the city limits for many years, but said it needed federal help to stay in business because of the credit crunch, reports Beth Wilson of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times: "A loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture was the company's only option, President Jerry Kane said. Without the refinancing that this loan guarantee will allow, Kane said, the company likely would be forced to close." The company has 850 employees. (Read more)

The loan will come from USDA's Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, which is for "properties are rural in character and adjacent to rural properties," writes Tom Johnston of MeatingPlace. (Read more) Johnston reports that city economic-development director Irma Caballero told him the plant is surrounded by large tracts of agricultural land, but that does not appear to be the case. Put the plant's address, 9001 Leopard St., into an interactive map service and you will see it's less than half a mile from Interstate 37 and less than a mile from an oil refinery. The MapQuest map shows that the nearest city limit is almost two miles from the plant; the stories don't make clear whether the plant is now in a "doughnut hole" in the city limits or if a corridor leading to the plant was de-annexed.