Applause from the standing room-only crowd filled the courtroom in Pembroke on Thursday evening as the Bryan County Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously not to recommend changes to the county’s waste management district ordinance submitted by Pooler-based Atlantic Waste Services.
Atlantic Waste Services, which has proposed a 268-acre landfill in the Black Creek community, requested the changes due to language in the county’s current ordinance that prohibits a landfill from being built.
The request for text amendments now heads to the Bryan County Board of Commissioners for final approval or denial. A public hearing and first reading will be held during the board’s Nov. 15 meeting at the Dixie Harn Community Center in Pembroke. The second reading and vote will likely be Dec. 13.
Though commission members had few questions for the applicant or opponents Thursday, Chairman Peter Shonka said they wanted to look at the situation fairly.
“I don’t want it in my back yard and I don’t think the applicants want it in their back yard,” Shonka said. “But the fact of the matter is we all produce waste and it’s got to go somewhere.”
Read more in the Nov. 5 edition of the News.