The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a zoning use change of a 52.54-acre tract at 1415 Constitution Road that paves the way for an automobile recycling firm to establish operations there.

The property, located in unincorporated DeKalb and just south and west of the Gresham Park neighborhood was originally zoned M-Industrial. It is the former Duron Paints and Wallcoverings.

But PlasMet LLP, an automobile recycling firm, sought the change to M-2 Heavy Industrial Use for its operations.

Larry M. Dingle, the attorney representing PlasMet, told East Atlanta Patch the company, which expects to close on the property by the second quarter, plans to convert a vacant, 175,920-square-foot building on site for its recycling.

PlasMet, a unit of East Point-based Newell Consulting LLC, takes automobiles and breaks them down to their base materials into a mulch-like residue, and separating out the electronic parts.

The materials are then sold as commodities to industrial buyers for reuse in their products, Dingle said.

While there was a concern from nearby homeowners in the Gresham Park and Panthersville communities about potential for the operations becoming a de-facto landfill, Dingle said roughly 75 percent of each vehicle can be broken down to base materials that will be resold.

The remaining parts that can't be reused will be transported offsite to a landfill.

While the DeKalb County Commissioners approved the change, they attached 14 conditions on the property, including:

• Limiting the property's use to a light industrials recovered materials facility
• No solid waste handling activities
• Compliance with DeKalb County's noise ordinance
• No walk-up customers
• Vehicles delivering materials to the site have to be covered to minimize dust and debris damage to nearby properties along and surrounding Constitution Road