The Columbus Planning Commission voted Monday to reject two rezoning requests in Southside that, according to the investment group spokesman, would have brought more than seven new businesses to the low-income area.

The commission voted 0-6-1, with Commissioner MacArthur Inge abstaining, after some citizens raised questions about the B.I.G. Five Investment Group proposal for the 500 and 600 blocks of 11th Avenue South.

B.I.G. Five spokesman Thomas Tate said he had letters of intent from several businesses, including Baldwin Produce and a Starkville-based medical group, that the area would benefit from.

“We”re in dire need of (a rezone there),” Tate said. “The city is in dire need of it.”

The area saw a decline in population in the recent census, Tate said. The businesses proposed for the small shopping center would bring jobs and healthy food options to the area.

But according to two Southside business owners, including one whose house is near the proposed rezones, the community neither wants nor needs the new businesses.

The retirement community needs new housing, not more high-priced businesses that attract crime, said resident Jessie Bishop.

“You know what that area will be? A hangout for drunks and drug-heads,” he told the commission.

Bishop also emphasized that a rezoning opens up the area to other, unwanted businesses like liquor stores.

“Regardless of what is said to go there, what”s going to be there 10 years from now?” he said.

To that, Tate said the businesses he has planned for the area would compete with and possibly drive away the unwanted businesses.

But until Tate gives the community a more solid plan, he could put anything there, said neighborhood business owner George Evelyn Brooks.

“We want (the neighborhood) to move forward, but we”re looking for the welfare of the people still there,” she said.

Tate said he plans to appeal the commission”s decision at the April 5 City Council meeting.

Commissioners also voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council lift the moratorium on electronic message signs, and to allow St. Paul”s Episcopal Church to build a columbarium, which will house the ashes of those who have been cremated.