After hours of testimony, Macon-Bibb Planning and Zoning commissioners voted against a proposed west Bibb medical waste treatment plant.
The company, MedSafe, wanted to build a facility here off Fulton Mill Road right next to the Animal Welfare shelter, but all 5 planning and zoning commissioners said no.
“It is an industrial area, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it was for something like medical waste,” Commissioner Jeane Easom said.
She and other commissioners were in consensus with neighbors like Mike Ratterree, who spoke against the project.
“Medical waste is a red flag. People don’t understand there’s disease,” Ratterree said. “All kinds of things you can catch from this blood stuff, shots, and needles.”
MedSafe representatives Ken Taylor and Scott Walker did their best to explain the proposed facility, and their procedures.
Its plan was to treat waste from doctors’ offices collected in red biohazard boxes.
Once the waste arrived at the facility, hot steam would sterilize it in an autoclave and break it down to be hauled to a landfill.
Commissioners weren’t convinced after hearing from several people who own land nearby.
“It could sit overnight, it might be sitting two days, might be sitting three days, might sit three weeks before it got unloaded,” Ratterree said. “It would just be sitting there locked up with a padlock.”
Commissioners also raised concerns about the facilities security of the biohazardous material.
Ratterree says a waste facility like that would hurt his property values and would raise concern for his family’s health.
“I felt like planning and zoning heard us. They had our concerns in mind,” Ratterree said.
During Monday's meeting, Planning and Zoning also approved a proposal to renovate the old Shriners Temple on Poplar Street to become an event space for rent.