From WATTAgNet:

About 800 people attended a public hearing hosted by the Cumberland County (North Carolina) Board of Commissioners on February 2 to voice an opinion on a proposed Sanderson Farms poultry plant in the county. The hearing, which lasted about five hours, drew both supporters and opponents.

Sanderson Farms has announced its intent to build a new chicken processing plant and had been considering Cumberland County as a possible location.

The hearing sought input as to whether to offer an incentive package to attract the plant. About 75 percent of the more than 100 people who spoke on February 2 voiced opposition. In addition to county commission members, the hearing was also attended by members of the Fayetteville City Council. Fayetteville is the city where the proposed site is located.

No action from the commission followed the hearing, although Commissioner Charles Evans, who had been considered the swing vote, indicated he favored an incentives packaged, saying “we need jobs here.”

The commission had earlier declined to hold a public hearing, indicating that it did not want to offer Sanderson Farms an incentive package to locate there. Sanderson Farms, according to some reports, had said after incentives were earlier denied that it is no longer considering a site in Cumberland County, which prompted the newly reorganized county commission to revisit the issue.