When plans were announced to revitalize a 4.3-mile stretch of Plank Road, many local residents thought things might finally be looking up for one of the city's majority-black, low-income areas.

They envisioned a grocery store, quality homes and thriving businesses cropping up along a thoroughfare that has deteriorated over years of disinvestment.

But now, not even two months after Build Baton Rouge's ambitious Plank Road Master Plan was released, the community is fiercely opposing a developer's plans to build a new convenience store near the intersection of Plank and Choctaw Drive. Residents and city-parish officials who represent them say yet another packaged liquor store is a slap in the face to their hopes for the area.

The message from them is clear: they want new development for Plank Road, but aren't going to settle for just anything.

"We want high-quality development; why put a liquor store there?" said Nicole Scott, who grew up in a neighborhood off Plank Road. "That doesn't foster hope in the community. It just further adds to the stigma that already exists there."

Myra Richardson, a 21-year-old Southern University student and young community advocate, says the children in the area deserve more than liquor stores and tire shops, which have oversaturated Plank Road her entire life.

"It's important we get some diverse economic opportunities there," Richardson said. "Things that will give the community the opportunity to improve their quality of life. There are so many different levels of barriers that prevent families from having a good quality of life in the neighborhood, like the oversaturation of liquor stores."

Scott and Richardson are not alone. The city-parish's Planning Commission has already gotten over 130 comment cards in opposition of the re-zoning request.

For years, North Baton Rouge residents say they have been forced to sit back and watch the city-parish invest time and dollars into economic development in downtown Baton Rouge and the southeastern parts of the parish, which are whiter and more affluent.

That's why they saw the Plank Road Master Plan as the first real, tangible, step to addressing blight and disinvestment in their neighborhoods.

"A lot of children, like myself, had to burst out of that community to get quality opportunities," Richardson said. "But so many children are still there suffering."

Michael Petty, a landscape architect and project manager, has asked the city-parish's Planning Commission to rezone several undeveloped lots in the 2500 block of Plank Road from "limited residential" to "heavy commercial" — a designation allowing his client Bluefin Development to build the controversial convenience store/gas station.

Within the 1.5-mile stretch of Plank Road between Huron and Foss streets, there are at least six similar businesses that sell packaged alcohol. Four are are within a seven-block radius of the proposed site, with two of them a mere two blocks apart from one another.

The re-zoning request was up for a vote at last week's Planning Commission meeting, but was yanked off the agenda at the last minute by Metro Councilwoman Tara Wicker.

The developers reached out to Wicker, asking she defer the item until next month, giving them time to meet with the residents in the community who had already voiced their vehement opposition to their project.

"We do plan on meeting with her and (Build Baton Rouge), as well as members of community, to sit down and see if we can come to some kind of middle ground," Petty said. "I'd like to listen to what they have to say with open ears."

Petty declined to comment further on the issue.

The Planning Commission is set to revisit the topic at its Feb. 17 meeting.

Build Baton Rouge, the parish's redevelopment authority, is leading the charge to stop the new development. The agency's master plan for Plank Road has already marked the spot in question as a potential site for a mixed-use development and transit hub for the rapid bus line along parts of Plank Road and Airline Highway to LSU.

Plank Road redevelopment: Grocery store, civic space, offices, more detailed in master plan A food hub anchored by a grocery store, a civic space for community meetings and events, a pocket park and a building that will house Build Ba…

The bus rapid transit plan, which would cost between $40 million and $50 million to establish, is the anchor for establishing other segments of the comprehensive plan, according to previous reports.

Other projects outlined in the plan include a mixed-use development near Plank and Mohican Street featuring a 15,000-square-foot grocery store; a pharmacy; residential units and space for food entrepreneurs; a 22,000-square-foot civic center across from the grocery store, a 30,000-square-foot mixed use development on Plank, between Oswego and Calumet streets, which would house the offices of Build Baton Rouge; a YWCA child care center and 15-16 mixed income housing units; an essential human services development near Choctaw Drive done in conjunction with St. Vincent de Paul; and a pocket park and pop-up retail space at Plank and Navajo Street.

"If we're serious about being intentional with the city's development, taking an equitable approach to make sure certain neighborhoods aren't overburdened, we felt it was important to speak out," said Chris Tyson, president and chief executive officer for Build Baton Rouge. "(A liquor store) is exactly what residents said they don't want to see any more along Plank Road during our master plan process. We didn't spend a quarter-of-a-million dollars to just come up with a booklet that would get ignored."

Tyson said research shows there can be direct correlations between alcohol establishment density and violent crime.

A 2012 study by John Hopkins University's Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth found that most of the disadvantaged and low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore had the greatest concentration of liquor/beer/wine stores. That research also showed that violent crime rates often spiked with every 10% increase in the number of packaged liquor stores in an area.

Given Baton Rouge's high crime rate and the negative impact it can have not only on those in the neighborhoods most affected, but on the economic development prospects for the capital region, Tyson argued that another package liquor-serving store on Plank Road would have grave implications for the health of the community.

Councilwoman Wicker sees meetings between the community, city-parish officials and the developer of the project as an opportunity to build a conversation around thoughtful, beneficial and methodical development along Plank Road and the rest of the North Baton Rouge area.

As it has been with the ongoing revitalization in old south Baton Rouge, also in her district, Wicker said there must be a "delicate balance" to development going forward in north Baton Rouge.

"This idea that any development is good in a community where there is not much development is not going to work," she said.