DALLAS – JBS USA LLC and Swift Pork Co. have won a ruling that allows the company to make a series of major improvements at the JBS Louisville Pork Plant in the Butchertown area of Louisville, Kentucky. The judge’s order clears the way for JBS to complete work on a set of improvements aimed at upgrading the appearance of the plant as well as reducing the plant’s impact on the surrounding neighborhood. The improvements include an enclosed chute for processing animals, a covered outdoor employee break area, a decorative fence in front of the facility, and a small expansion of the plant’s processing area. Click here and here to see news coverage of the ruling. The Louisville Metro Board of Zoning Adjustment (BOZA) approved the proposed improvements in March 2014, but that ruling was appealed by the Butchertown Neighborhood Association (BNA), which has a history of lodging complaints against JBS. In her April 7 ruling, Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Ann Bailey Smith upheld the zoning board’s decision and chastised the neighborhood association for its history of antagonism toward JBS: [T]he Association has made what amounts to hyper technical objections to the Board’s approval process that can only lead the Court to conclude that the Association’s problem is not with the physical modifications themselves, but with JBS’ very presence in Butchertown. Indeed, the Association’s main objection is that the Board did not reconsider the conditional use permit it issued in 1969 for the entire premises, thus calling into question whether JBS should continue to operate its meat packing plant in the neighborhood at all. Attorney Clayton Bailey, a name partner in the Dallas complex litigation boutique Bailey Brauer PLLC who briefed and argued JBS’ case before