Neighbors sue Alamance County to block Clapp Mill landfill permit

Neighbors near 4115 Clapp Mill Road have taken Alamance County to court over a landfill permit they say was approved under the wrong rules. Linda Kirpatrick and six other plaintiffs filed suit May 20 in Alamance County superior court, asking a judge to stop the inert debris landfill planned for a site in southern Alamance County.

The complaint names Alamance County and property owner Kenneth D. Phillippie as defendants. It argues the county’s approval was arbitrary and capricious, lacked substantial competent evidence and contained legal errors. At the center of the dispute is the county’s classification of the project under its Heavy Industrial Development Ordinance, which treats inert debris landfills as a Class 1 use with a 10-acre minimum lot size, a 150-foot operations setback and a 100-foot stream setback.

The neighbors say the site was classified too loosely, letting the applicant meet less demanding standards than the ordinance requires. They contend a proper classification would push the landfill farther from nearby homes and change how the setback is measured. Their filing also argues that the access road shown on the site plan should count as part of the landfill’s operational area, a move that could alter the setback calculation and keep the road from emptying onto Clapp Mill Road.

The legal fight follows months of local opposition. The Alamance County Planning Board endorsed the project on March 19 by a 6-to-1 vote after a two-hour discussion, and county commissioners first delayed their April vote to hear more from opponents before approving the permit on April 20 by a 4-to-1 margin. Vice chairman Steve Carter cast the lone dissent.

Commissioner Ed Priola said his concern was not the public road itself but the quarter-mile operational road and the big trucks that would use it. Neighbors have raised broader worries about truck traffic, noise, runoff, groundwater, air pollution, road safety and the concentration of similar disposal sites in southern Alamance County.

The plaintiffs include nearby property owners and Seatic, LLC, which owns adjoining land. Their lawyer, Robert E. Hornik Jr., had already appeared before commissioners to oppose the permit. County planning records also show confusion about notice timing for the November 2025 planning board hearing, with members noting potentially conflicting language in the ordinance.

The parcel has been described in county materials as roughly 97 acres, while other coverage put it at 99 acres. State rules also add another layer to the dispute: LCID landfill permits are valid for five years, and siting criteria require an access road around the waste boundary for emergency and firefighting access. The suit now puts those local and state rules squarely before the court, and could slow or halt a project that already cleared one major county hurdle.