Linda Romine of Morningside Drive is seen at the January 21 Cullman City Council meeting. Romine brought her concerns over a rezoning request to the Planning Commission Monday night.

A rezoning request that could pave the way for a new apartment community failed to gain a recommendation, for or against, at the Cullman Planning Commission on Monday.

The issue of whether to rezone a 10-acre parcel on West Main Avenue and Morningside Drive SW from R-2 to R-4/B-1, which would allow apartments, will go to the Cullman City Council for consideration.

After a group of 41 residents came to stand against the request, with several of them giving reasons for their opposition during the public hearing portion of the meeting, Planning Commission Chairman Mike Voss asked for a motion to recommend the rezoning. Commission member Bobby Kelley made the motion, but no one provided a second. After a long pause, Voss asked for a motion to not recommend the request, which was made by commission member Wendell Copeland. There was no second.

Voss then asked city attorney Roy Williams what step would occur next. Williams said the City Council must next take up the matter at a time it chooses.

The Planning Commission’s role is to consider requests for development projects, which involves zoning, and determine whether those plans meet the ordinances and rules established by the City Council, Voss said.

He said the Planning Commission is only allowed to determine whether a proposal falls within the city’s rules and then to make recommendations that a project does or doesn’t meet those requirements.

Wendy Childers of Weichert Realty-Carter & Co. Real Estate, represented the clients who own the land, James Roden and Elizabeth Yochum. She altered the original request to remove the B-1 status because there is only one parcel that makes up the 10 acres.

Linda Romine of Morningside Drive brought most of the residents’ concerns forward to the Planning Commission. Her concerns focused on privacy, the increased traffic on the road, impact on the water table, wildlife, and noise.

She also said that as the apartments age in years to come, the original intent of the developer to provide higher-end rental housing could be lost after it is sold.

“I understand it is supposed to be very nice, but the major impact is going to come 20 years down the road,” Romine said.

She also said there could be an impact on public schools, which she said are now at capacity in the classrooms.

Ashley Lamar Dawes, of Decatur, a Cullman native with family still here, said her research indicates that local industries do not pay enough to support expensive rental apartments. She also said the number of people moving in would create more traffic and noise in an area that has a nursing home, assisted living facility and long-standing single-family dwellings.

The next City Council meeting is Monday, but it was not known Monday if the rezoning request would be on the agenda for that meeting.