Neighbors protested loudly, but county leaders voted to rezone the Liberty Road area in Southeast Guilford for industrial use.
GREENSBORO -- People who live in southeast Guilford County have a list of reasons why they don't want an asphalt plant in their neighborhood. Thursday, they went before the Guilford County Commission to tell them why.
"Our concerns are health, safety, the environmental impact, property damage and property devaluation," resident Linda Moore explained to the board.
Neighbors are also worried about a large number of trucks traveling through their neighborhood. But representatives from Sharpe Brothers, the company that wants to build the plant, told the Board that many of the neighbors concerns aren't valid.
Plenty of neighbors showed up to oppose the plan.
Sharpe Brothers representative John Davenport told the Board that the trucks would mainly use Highway 421.
"It would be likely that trucks would use the four-lane, high-speed facility versus going through the neighborhoods," he said.
Commissioners Carolyn Coleman and Linda Shaw understood the people's concerns.
"I'm very concerned about the health hazard at this point of what may go in there," Shaw said. "I can't vote for it tonight."
But Commissioner Billy Yow felt the area was the best place in the county to put the plant.
"There's nothing else that would work," he said. "Nobody would want to buy the house by the rock quarry which was there before any of you."
The majority of the Board agreed with Yow. They voted in favor of rezoning the Liberty Road area so plans can move forward with the plant.