The site plan for a proposed landfill in northwestern Lee County. The Deep River runs along the top right of the photo, while North Plank Road is at left.

The Lee County Board of Adjustment voted Monday night to postpone a hearing about a proposed landfill on North Plank Road at the request of an attorney representing several of the property’s neighbors.

Lee County landowner Bobby Branch has submitted to the county plans for a construction and debris landfill on several hundred acres between North Plank Road and the Deep River in northwestern Lee County, and the Board of Adjustment was convened to consider his request for a special use permit.

But attorney Chip Post, who represented multiple neighboring families, apparently asked that the hearing be continued to a later date so that they could learn more about the project. It’s unclear when the next hearing will be held.

The plans, submitted in December of 2018, also show a recycling plant and an area for recyclable yard waste.

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Even if the county Board of Adjustment finds that Branch proved everything he needed to in order to be granted the special use permit, he will still have to go before the county Board of Commissioners for a franchise, which is a legislative process in which the commissioners have far more discretion than the adjustment board, which is quasi-judicial and deals primarily with findings of fact.

And while it’s been several years since a major landfill was proposed locally, such projects have proven largely unpopular with local citizens. Branch is apparently represented by the same law firm that represented developer Ray Covington in his successful effort to place a rock quarry across N.C. Highway 87 from the Carolina Trace community.