DOTHAN, Ala. — At the intersection of Murphy Mill Road and John D. Odom Road, you may have seen a public notice sign off in front of the wooded area.
According to city documents, applicant Clint Shelley and owner Mike Patel requested to rezone the property surrounding the intersection from R-1 meaning residential single-family homes to R-A multifamily housing which usually refers to an apartment complex.
Since residents that live in nearby subdivisions found out about the proposed idea, they have been against rezoning their area. The number one reason they all have in common is adding traffic to an already busy area.
“The traffic problem is a concern to all of us just getting in and out of our neighborhood especially from 6:30 to 8:30 with traffic people going to work going to school, dropping things off,” Sha’nah Martin said.
There are about five neighborhoods that martin believes would be affected by an apartment complex. Also, she believes the property values could go up.
As of now, there is no word on the number of apartments or what kind of apartments but martin says she heard plenty of concerns from neighbors.
“The fact that there would be a noise problem apartment complexes, by and large, have dumpsters not only because of the noise level but because of the varmint that comes with those dumpsters…Rats, flies, mosquitos and we don’t need that especially with everything else we deal with in south Alabama,” Martin said.
Numerous residents have expressed concerns on social media. Martin has a petition that has plenty of signatures and they are going to take it to the planning commission Wednesday morning where they will have a meeting about the rezoning proposal in room 203 at the civic center.
