A much maligned residential development planned for Stanton Springs is off the table after the developers withdrew a petition for rezoning recently.

Tuesday, the Newton County Board of Commissioners (BOC) allowed the petition to be withdrawn by unanimous vote.

“Thanks to all the people that live out there who have been involved in stopping this project,” said District 1 Commissioner John Douglas, who made the motion to withdraw.

The original petition, which went in front of the board on Dec. 2 proposed to change zoning in the area requested from a mixed use business park district to allow a town center overlay and residential neighborhood. In early November, the county’s planning and zoning department recommended the petition be denied. In its first meeting of December, the BOC voted to table any action on the zoning after developers requested the hearing be delayed.

Developers, Kippy Clarke, Chandler and Brown and Bullard Land Planning first proposed the neighborhood to the Joint Development Authority (JDA), which approved a land sale pending. However the sale by the JDA was for less than what it paid for.

The JDA approved the sale, with Newton County delegates Keith Ellis and Mort Ewing being the two dissenting votes. The pair would resign from the JDA shortly after the approval of the sale.