Today, however, officials at the Osaka, Japan-based company and staffers at the Joint Cartersville-Bartow County Industrial Development Authority declined comment until the land-site controversy is resolved. But residents in this town, 25 miles northwest of Downtown Atlanta, are speaking out to both the company and the county agency, industrial area brokers following the issue, tell GlobeSt.com.

Angry over an alleged secret zoning and economic incentives deal that could total $10 million, residents picketed Toyo representatives as they inspected the proposed plant site last week on US 441, about four miles east of Interstate 75, outside White.

A local activist group sued in March but later dropped its suit against the six-member authority. The suit alleged the authority violated the county's land-use plan by approving a five-acre agriculture-zoned tract to be rezoned for industrial use.

Brokers intimate with the White community tell GlobeSt.com the residents are not against the plant development itself--only opposing its planned location near rural and residential areas. The county rezoned the plant site earlier this year to industrial from agricultural and low-density residential. Residents maintain they were not aware of the rezoning until after the county took the action, local brokers tell GlobeSt.com.