TIFTON — Despite alterations to make it more palatable, the city council has once again turned away councilman Lester Cromer’s plan for an outreach center.

Members of the city council were at a 2-2 split during the vote to approve Cromer’s rezoning request at their Dec. 11, resulting in the motion effectively being denied due to Cromer himself being unable to weigh in from a conflict of interest.

After facing opposition in October and a stalemate on a vote in November, Cromer brought his initial plan back to the planning and zoning committee, requesting that his rezoning specifications be altered from applying for a General Business designation to Residential Professional, which he felt would be better accepted by his fellow council members.

The revised application was placed before the council once again at their Dec. 4 meeting, where Folk once again expressed concern that the new zoning classification could still be abused.

The rezoning received a motion to approve and a second from Councilman Josh Reynolds and M. Jay Hall, respectively, at the following meeting, but before the vote was called, Folk reminded the council that a Residential Professional zoning could be used for anything from restaurants and shops to funeral homes, laboratories, and RV parks, under special conditions.

He stressed that he strongly wanted to protect Tifton’s neighborhoods, and that approving Cromer’s application would be a detriment to that mission.

Where Reynolds and Hall voted in favor of the application, Folk’s vote in opposition was joined by mayor Julie Smith, who, despite initially being in favor of the project, had come to change her mind after the city had discussed a proposed daycare, meant to house sixty to seventy children at a time, to be instituted in a residential area at a meeting in November.

Smith recounted that the city had been forced to call a moratorium on permitting or establishing daycare facilities to better look into the situation, and that dealing with that situation had made her realize that her role as city council member as well as mayor was to do what was in the best interest of her constituents and their neighborhoods.

With the vote to approve ending in an even split, the motion was considered dead and therefore, the application denied.