A court date will soon be set to determine whether a massive Confederate battle flag will be allowed to fly on private property off of a Virginia highway.

A 30 by 50 foot Confederate flag was erected on a 120-foot pole overlooking Interstate 64

by the Virginia Flaggers to counter the city of Charlottesville's efforts to remove a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, which also sparked the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in 2017.

According to the county's zoning ordinance, permitted buildings and structures are allowed a 60-foot maximum for height unless a zoning appeal or building permit is approved, which was not the case for the large flag.

Officials say it violates those ordinances, but the group says it's a Civil War monument, exempting it from height limitations.

The county first sent out a violation notice to the Virginia Flaggers, telling them to either reduce the height of the flagpole, apply for a special exception with the board of supervisors, or remove it, but the Flaggers refused with the argument that the flagpole was a monument.

"You ought to be ashamed if you don't want to recognize the people who fought and died for this county and this state," said Grayson Jennings, a Virginia Flaggers member at the time.

But Robert Patton, another county resident, said it's not about the message of the flag, but the violation it poses in the county.

"The issue to me is not so much the flag that's flying, but the way the processes and policies and laws of the counties have to be adhered to and followed by everybody," said Patton.

The case was

when the Virginia Flaggers appealed a Louisa County Board of Zoning Appeals decision denying a request to consider the flag a monument that should be left as is.

Now, it will move forward to a hearing in Louisa Circuit Court on July 15 for two separate rulings: First, whether the flagpole is a monument, then on the constitutionality of the county's zoning ordinance.

The attorney for the Virginia Flaggers argues the flagpole is a monument because it also marks a former Confederate soldier's grave.