A proposed asphalt plant could be making its way across town after the Greenville City Council voted to rezone property along Landfill Drive.

APAC Mid-South, Inc. currently operates a plant in the Greenville Industrial Park, but is considering moving the plant, which would be located behind Boutwell Auto Sales & Salvage on Alabama Hwy. 10.

In order for the plant to relocate, the city had to rezone a portion of its property, as well as a tract of land owned by Don Boutwell, from a medium density residential district to a light industrial district. That took place at the city council’s meeting on Monday.

According to City Clerk Sue Arnold, the Industrial Development Board would likely handle the land transaction for the portion of the land that is owned by the city. APAC is also interested in the piece of property owned by Boutwell.

“APAC needed more space than we had land in that corner, so Don was approached about selling a piece of land behind his scrap yard, which adjoins our property,” Arnold said.

Mayor Dexter McLendon said the details of a possible deal are still being ironed out.

“We’re in negotiations with the (asphalt) company now,” McLendon said. “This is still something that may not happen, but we had to get the property rezoned in order to move ahead.”

McLendon said that when the proposal was first introduced it was met with some opposition by those concerned about the sight, smell, sound that would result from having a plant so near to their homes.

“At the last planning commission meeting we held, we had some folks who live out there down from the old Big R who had some concerns about it,” he said. “It was a close vote at the planning commission. So I got all the people that came to us with concerns together and told them that we don’t want to do anything that’s going to have an impact on their property. I asked them to pick a couple of people from their group to go with me to look at (an asphalt) plant. So they picked a couple of guys and we went and looked at it. We walked 100 yards away from the plant and saw that you couldn’t see the plant. You couldn’t even hear the plant. Those two guys decided on their own that there wasn’t anything wrong with it. They went back and told everyone that it’s not going to hurt anything and they won’t even know it’s there.”

McLendon said he is confident the plant won’t have a negative impact on those living in the area.

“We made sure it wasn’t going to bother anyone’s house,” he said. “If it was going to, I wouldn’t have even recommended it.”