Stacks of Western hats tower over richly embroidered cowboy boots. A nearby taqueria advertises barbacoa de borrego and chicharron, and lunch customers stand in long lines for the steamed lamb and pork skins.

This is the Buckhorn flea market -- or as its many Hispanic patrons call it -- "la pulga." But the future of la pulga is in doubt.

The crowded market has operated for years on a dusty gravel lot on Buckhorn Road, just off combined interstates 40 and 85, near Mebane. On Sundays especially, traffic snarls the interstate off-ramp as dozens of cars line up, testimony to the open-air market's appeal. The majority of its clientele is Hispanic, but its appeal is broader.

Now developers have proposed a 1.1 million-square-foot retail and mixed-use development on the property that holds the market.

The proposal is before the Orange County Board of Commissioners. If approved, some worry, the area could lose a cultural and economic institution.

"This is a place that helps build community," said Carrboro Alderman John Herrera. "There is a whole networking that takes place, a lot of informal networks."

Herrera, who grew up on a farm in Costa Rica, said he can buy produce at la pulga -- "the flea," in Spanish -- that he can't find in the supermarket.

Josh Hinson, a therapist with El Futuro, a mental-health agency serving Hispanics, said la pulga fills more than a commercial need. The experience of immigrants coming to North Carolina is stressful, he said. Social opportunities are hard to find, which can lead to depression and anxiety.

"I don't know where people are going to have the opportunity to see each other, to do the weekly shopping in quite this way," Hinson said.

Ana Diaz has been shopping at la pulga for years. Originally from Guatemala, she's lived in the United States for 12 years and is a hotel housekeeping manager.

"You buy the tomatoes in Food Lion for $3 a pound. You come in here, for 79 cents," Diaz said.

"If [they] close this thing, it's hard for everybody."

Several shoppers and vendors said they'd heard little or nothing about the plan. Efforts to reach the property owners, listed in tax records as Orange County Investors Partnership of Anderson, S.C., for comment were unsuccessful.

John Fugo, whose Montgomery Development is one of three local companies involved in the proposal, said developers were sensitive to concerns about neighborhood character. "We're certainly not out to ruin anybody's social center," Fugo said.

Asked whether there might be room for informal retail in the project, Fugo said if there were, it would be along the lines of a farmers market and on a smaller scale.

Barry Jacobs, chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, would like to see the market stay in the county. But even if the project doesn't happen, he said, the existing location doesn't work.

"The owners have not done a good job of controlling traffic," he said. "It's a nightmare for people who live in the neighborhood."

Jacobs also mentioned fire code violations that prompted the county to condemn a building at the market in 2007 and a lengthy zoning dispute between the county and the owners.

The market has had other problems as well. In 2006, a law enforcement raid found more than $700,000 worth of counterfeit goods. The year before, agents from the N.C. Department of Revenue confronted 52 vendors operating without state sales tax identification numbers.

But the market's informality seems to be an attraction to shoppers such as Cano Diaz and her mother.

"A lot of people come here. This is family time, you come and shop and spend time with your family," said Cano Diaz. "It would be really bad if they close this for, like, a stupid mall."

"There's a lot of malls," said her mother.

"There's only one flea market," said Cano Diaz.