DALTON, Ga. — “Very disappointing.”

That’s how Randall O’Neal described a 4-0 vote Monday night by the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners to deny a rezoning request to re-zone part of the campus of Kingdom Living Ministries at 3320 Rauschenberg Road near Varnell to transitional residential from rural residential. O’Neal is the director of Oasis of Love, which had hoped to build apartment-style transitional housing for men coming out of Walker State Prison in Rock Spring at the site. Chairman Lynn Laughter typically votes only in the event of a tie.

“This means that we will have to find another avenue to bring what we need to bring to this area,” O’Neal said. “We will explore our other options. We are not done. We are not dead. This was a learning process.”

The Dalton-Whitfield Planning Commission voted 5-0 to recommend against the rezoning in August at a meeting in which many residents of the area spoke out against the project.

Commissioners had no discussion before voting. But after the meeting, Commissioner Roger Crossen said community opposition played a role in his vote.

“I live in that area, and I’ve heard a lot from my neighbors,” he said. “The neighborhood didn’t want it.”

Commissioner Harold Brooker said he didn’t think the project is right for a residential neighborhood.

“It’s a good thing. But that’s the wrong place,” he said. “It needs to be someplace closer to jobs, so they can walk to work and not have to be transported.”

Commissioner Greg Jones echoed those remarks.

“It’s just so far away from jobs or services. That’s not the right place for something like that,” he said.

Commissioners also voted to declare several aging pieces of equipment used by the public works department surplus and put them up for sale by auction on govdeals.com, a website on which governments across the nation sell surplus vehicles and equipment.