Proponents of a proposed urban renewal project outnumbered opponents by more than two-to-one Friday in a standing-room-only city-board room.

Six people made generally favorable comments on the city government’s plan for the area along Oak and Washington streets south of downtown.

The comments were made during a public hearing on the plan. The next step in the process would be to place on the city board’s agenda the question of whether to approve the plan. Mayor Laurence Leyens said the board would probably consider such action within about two weeks.

&#8220I think it will be a tremendous asset to the City of Vicksburg to have this done,” said S.J. &#8220Skippy” Tuminello, a resident of Pearl Street in the proposed urban-renewal area. &#8220This is something that we’ve needed for a long, long time.”

Among those speaking against the plan was Barbara Harris of Pittman Avenue.

&#8220I am against the urban-renewal project because it’s going to take away that black neighborhood,” Harris said. &#8220I think that’s an affront to every citizen in this city, every black citizen in this city.”

The type of plan governed by state law. It provides for cities to specify proposed uses for each property in a proposed urban-renewal area. Among the options available to city governments under such plans to achieve such goals is property acquisition.

Leyens has said the specified uses for most properties in the plan are the same as their current uses and that the plan calls for enforcement of existing city codes for most structures. The plan calls for the city to acquire two structures, a car wash at Belmont and Washington streets and a pink trailer on Oak Street, city officials have said.

The plan, called the South Washington Street and Waterfront Redevelopment Plan, says it includes a survey of 540 properties, including about 149 classified as substandard.

City officials have said photos have been taken of each property in the area.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield recused himself from the hearing, saying he objected on behalf of constituents that any such photos be shown publicly.

In Friday’s hearing, City Planner Wayne Mansfield told the audience of about 60 people in City Hall about the plan before Leyens opened the floor for public comment.

&#8220While the majority of structures in this area are standard structures, there is a significant number of deteriorating and dilapidated structures that contribute to blight and decline of the overall area and unchecked, these substandard structures will play a key part in continued decline of the area,” says a draft version the written version of the plan, which is several inches thick and is on file in the city clerk’s office.

The area’s population has been estimated at 1,752, with about 60 percent renting. The whole city has about 47 percent renters, and the national average is 20 to 25 percent, Mansfield said.

Separate from its proposal for the urban-renewal project the city has proposed borrowing $16.9 million for public improvements. No proceeds from such an issue would be spent for any acquisition of property in the urban-renewal area that may be done and only about $540,000 of the borrowing is to be spent on street-repaving and other upgrades – such as lighting, landscaping and added or replacement sidewalks, Leyens has said.

Beginning in 2001, during Leyens’ first term as mayor, an urban-renewal project for downtown Washington Street was begun and a multimillion-dollar bond issue was made. Unlike the currently proposed projects, money from that bond issue was budgeted for acquisition and resale of downtown property under that urban-renewal project.

&#8220The city has no interest and never has had an interest in purchasing someone’s home,” Leyens said of the currently proposed urban-renewal project. &#8220The solution is going to come from the private sector.”

The proposal to borrow the $16.9 million has been opposed by residents who presented City Hall a week earlier with a petition they said contained more than the required 1,500 signatures to force a referendum on the issue. Among the leaders of the drive that resulted in that petition was NAACP vice president John Shorter.

Among the reasons Shorter has said he advocates opposing the bond issue is suspicion that, despite city officials’ assurances to the contrary, proceeds from it could be used to purchase property in the urban-renewal area.

&#8220You’ve been instructed to mess people’s minds up, to take the money out of urban-renewal and put it in the bond,” Shorter told Leyens and Beauman.

&#8220I’m against urban renewal. Everything you said you would like to do you can do without it.”

Others who commented favorably about the plan were neighborhood resident Wilson Kelly, who said he owns several properties in the area; Annabelle Bed & Breakfast owner Carolyn Stephenson; Duff-Green Mansion Bed & Breakfast owner Harry Sharp; real-estate developer Shirley Waring; real-estate agent Doug Upchurch; and the chairman of the city’s planning committee and zoning board, Tim Fagerburg.

Also voicing opposition was Mattie Robinson, who said she or members of her family also own several homes in the area.

Beauman, Mansfield and Fagerburg said the urban-renewal project was part of the city’s long-range, comprehensive plan that includes upgrading the Washington Street corridor, one of the main routes between Interstate 20 and downtown Vicksburg.

&#8220What the urban-renewal plan is proposing is nothing but a benefit for the City of Vicksburg and brings into reality what the comprehensive plan says is already a goal of the City of Vicksburg,” Fagerburg said.