A Goffstown resident who wanted to convert part of a barn on his property into a small animal processing operation will have to go back to square one.

A packed Mildred Stark meeting room at Goffstown Town Hall erupted in applause from both Bedford and Goffstown residents on Tuesday, Sept. 2, after the Goffstown Zoning Board voted to deny Negash Abdelkader’s special exception to run a halal animal processing plant on his property. Halal is the Muslim way of slaughtering animals to comply with their religion, similar in theory to the Jewish faith’s kosher process.

Abdelkader, of 83 Joppa Hill Road on the Bedford/Goffstown line, applied for the special exception to permit the use of a 1,500-square-foot animal slaughtering operation. At the third episode of a continued public hearing on Sept. 2, the Zoning Board announced they’d been advised by the town’s attorney not to grant the special exception. “Multiple uses are not permitted on a single lot,” said zoning code enforcement officer Derek Horne. “Our zoning ordinance does not allow this if we keep primary residence.”

Adding the processing plant to the property, which is zoned for agriculture, would create a second primary use on the property, the first use being residential, and thus would instead require a use variance, Horne explained. This situation eliminates the board’s authority to grant a special exception.

“I think it’s a valid point, and it was a point that was legitimately brought up at the last public hearing, and it was concerning,” said Zoning Board Chairman Catherine Whooten.

The board discussed amongst themselves whether the situation required a special exception or a variance. A special exception is needed when the use is permitted, but the board just needs to make sure the location is feasible. A variance requires meeting certain criteria to create another use on the property, Horne explained.

Two motions, one requiring Abdelkader to submit an application for a use variance and the other denying the special exception both passed unanimously with the board.

Abdelkader’s property lies about 600 feet from the Bedford town line, concerning many Bedford residents as well as Goffstown residents who feel the extra traffic would wreck the unpaved portion of Joppa Hill Road. They are also worried about their well water and concerned the noise and odors would alter the neighborhood’s character.

Abdelkader said he would slaughter about a dozen lambs, goats and cows per day after getting about half a dozen deliveries a week. The United States Department of Agriculture would inspect the facility regularly, he said.

Danielle Mazzella, who lives at 487 Joppa Hill Road in Bedford and borders Abdelkader’s property, has been building a contingent of Bedford and Goffstown residents to sign a petition against the processing plant to submit to the Goffstown Zoning Board.

At the meeting on Sept. 2, she found out she wouldn’t need the petition, which 225 people signed during an open house she held at her home, right away. “I’m glad,” she said after the board voted the special exception down. “He’s asking for something that is a multiple use that clearly is not an area for multiple uses.”

Mazzella said she will also fight the use variance once Abdelkader applies for it. Abdelkader was smiling as he walked from the Sept. 2 meeting, and said he’d keep fighting, too.

“This is just the beginning. We’ll be back,” he said. “I’ll just have to revise and then make my judgment.”

He added he plans to appeal the board’s decision. “We’ll be here tomorrow,” he said. “This is wrong.”