ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — East Albany residents are demanding city leaders reject a rezoning request for a proposed truck stop and maintenance shop along Don Cutler Sr. Drive, warning the commercial facility would endanger children, draw crime, and overwhelm neighborhood roads.

The development, proposed by BYD, llc., would sit behind an established residential community and near a local middle school. City commissioners delayed a final vote during their Sept. 15 meeting to allow developers time to present an updated site plan.

Neighbors living near the site said the project would disrupt their daily lives and pose safety hazards for families.

“The lights in your home, in your windows, the traffic, the noise, the blowing of the horns,” neighbor Ozie Pace said.

Pace, who also went to the commission meeting, also warned of around-the-clock disruptions to their quality of life.

“A truck stop brings in crime. It brings in loitering,” Pace said. “The trucks will take over our street because they are, in my experience, they will bogart or try to intimidate.”

Gloria Garner, another nearby resident, expressed concern about the volume of commercial vehicles that the facility would bring to residential streets.

“There’s just so much community over here. So many people are going to be unsafe… with all these trucks and everything that will be placed over here. It’s just going to be too unsafe for them all.”

City planning perspective

Planning officials said the location sits along a major trucking corridor and that part of the property is already zoned for heavy commercial use.

Paul Forgey, with Albany-Dougherty Planning and Development, said the area’s location makes commercial use practical.

“Albany is a transportation hub,” Forgey said. “On the truck stop facility itself, there’s going to be a holding pond on the south side of it... And the maintenance facility only needs about a third of the property that they are requesting to rezone.”

Forgey added that even if this project does not move forward, the property along Highway 19 will not stay empty.

“So it’s likely that if the truck stop doesn’t develop there, something else will probably,” Forgey said. “I mean, it would make sense for a gas station.”

What’s next

The Albany City Commission delayed a vote on the rezoning request to review full site plans for both the truck stop and the maintenance facility.

Neighbor Earl Crawford said residents want the opportunity to address city leaders directly before a decision is reached.

“I hope that we’re able to be able to come out and talk with the commissioners and the people downtown to see this,” Crawford said. “Because this is a community for family and not big businesses.”

The Albany City Commission will take up the rezoning request again on Oct. 6, when developers are scheduled to present updated site plans.

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