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GREENSBORO —This stretch of South Elm-Eugene Street is a place where people take advantage of the spring weather to go for morning walks.


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It's a neighborhood just south of Creek Ridge Road where many families bought their first home — and some are still there 30 years later.


It's not the kind of place residents wanted to see a halfway house for federal inmates.


And neither did the Greensboro Zoning Commission, which unanimously rejected an application Monday night for such a 40-person center at 3107 S. Elm-Eugene St.


The women who would like to run the center — local attorney Barbara Silver-Smith and Crystal Rhoades — said they will appeal the decision.


"Greensboro can either choose to help (the inmates) turn their life around, or they can turn their back on them," Rhoades said.


Silver-Smith and Rhoades have applied for a federal contract to run the center at a long-vacant office building.


The building is surrounded by businesses on three sides. The property is zoned light industrial, a designation in which the city allows correctional centers. However, a special permit from the city is needed to run it.


The program discussed Monday would house men and women who would have jobs in the community during the day and be locked in the center at night.


The program would help inmates rejoin society by providing job and financial counseling and other services.


"We would provide a safe and secure environment," Silver-Smith said.


Across the street — perhaps 150 feet away — are single-family homes.


Winslo Douglas lives a short distance away in the Woodlea Lake subdivision. Dozens of residents who showed up at the zoning commission hearing Monday said they don't want to share that neighborhood with federal prisoners, even if they could include, as the applicants pointed out, people like Martha Stewart.


"There is no supervision once I let you out that front door," Douglas said.


Residents said they were worried they could become the target of the convicted criminals.


Mittie Smith, an area resident, said she has gotten to know criminals in her years as a defense attorney.


"I would not want to bring them home with me," she said.


Silver-Smith said there are already former federal inmates working in and around this area.


Clashes like this often happen where industrial and residential properties meet, said Planning Director Dick Hails, who recommended the commission approve the plan.


"It's hard to say if there is ever a good location or a great location for a facility like this," Hails said.


The zoning commission decided not to approve the plan, saying that it was not right for the neighborhood. Several board members said they were also concerned about an apparent lack of communication between the applicants and the neighbors.


If Silver-Smith and Rhoades win their intended appeal of the zoning commission decision, they will still have to win the federal bid to run the center for up to five years. That decision won't be made by the Federal Bureau of Prisons until later this year.

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda. lehmert@news-record.com