NATCHEZ — Work is being done to construct a turn lane on John R. Junkin Drive to a piece of property where a nursing center may be built, but the developer said it will likely be two years before the City of Natchez sees plans for the center.

Developer Gail Evans said he is having the turn lane constructed so he can have access to the property, which he said he has owned for 32 years.

“Right now you can’t get in there with so much traffic,” he said.

Evans said he is currently developing three other nursing centers in other towns and wants to get those completed before he attempts to develop the property that neighbors the Glenwood subdivision.

“There’s no real concrete plans right now, but maybe in two years when I get the other three I’m building complete, I’ll try,” Evans said.

The Natchez Planning Commission and the Natchez Board of Aldermen denied Evans’ request in 2009 to rezone a 3.6-acre parcel of land on John R. Junkin Drive to allow a construction of a nursing center.

To develop a nursing center, the R-1 residential zoned piece of land would have to be rezoned as a special use district.

Former city planner Rusty Lewis said in 2009 that he believed the land was originally intended to be zoned a special use district. He said a mapping error had it incorrectly shown as an R-1 area like Glenwood subdivision.

Many residents of the Glenwood subdivision appeared before the board of aldermen in 2009 to voice concerns about rezoning the property.

Evans has said he has owned the property for 32 years and developed the Glenburney Nursing and the Adams County Nursing Center.