Sanderson Farms search for a site for its next poultry-processing plant continues even as local opposition to the project goes to court to try to stop it.

The Mississippi company has not purchased any property and is still in discussions with the state Department of Commerce, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and local officials in Nash and Wayne counties, said Mike Cockrell, Sanderson's chief financial officer.

"We are still doing our due diligence," he said this week. "We haven't purchased any property yet."

The Nash County Board of Commissioners recently rezoned a site in southern Nash County that it hopes Sanderson will select.

Sanderson needs about 1,000 acres where it can build a processing plant and a spray field for the plant's treated wastewater.

The city of Wilson and more than 30 nearby property owners have filed a lawsuit against Nash County alleging that the rezoning violated state laws. 

Sanderson had originally focused its search on Wayne County but later expanded it farther north into Nash County.