AUBURN — A 9,000-square-foot slaughterhouse could work in southern Auburn’s agriculture zone, councilors agreed Monday.

Now slaughterhouse owner Craig Linke will take a proposal to change Auburn’s agriculture zoning rules to allow the slaughterhouse before the city Planning Board.

If the Planning Board agrees, Linke can bring forward plans for a slaughterhouse on the 21-acre farm at the northeastern corner of Trapp and Royal River roads. The farm, at 512 Trapp Road, was home to a chicken processing operation in 1998 that was never successful.

“They put everything into it, but couldn’t make it,” Economic Development Director Roland Miller said. The building has been vacant for at least six years, slowly falling apart due to age and vandalism.

“It’s just a shell now,” Linke said. “They took all the metal, all the pipes and copper tubing.”

Linke would like to resurrect the operation to process red meat — beef, pork, lamb and goat. He needs to get the city to change zoning codes first.

The agriculture zone only allows slaughterhouses as an accessory use to a farm. Standalone slaughterhouses, like the one Linke is proposing, are currently only allowed in the city’s industrial zone.

But Henrietta Beaufait, state veterinarian in charge of meat inspections, said the slaughterhouses make more sense around other agriculture uses.

“The noise level for one thing, is better for the animals surrounded by agriculture uses,” she said.

Linke said he’s sure the Auburn slaughterhouse would be a success. Most of Maine’s red meat slaughterhouses are booked through January, with Maine ranchers sending between 300 and 400 animals to be slaughtered out of state.

“I just would like to do this, keep that business in Maine,” Linke said.

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