|By Neil Johnson, reporter/anchor, Big Radio|

The Janesville Plan Commission’s OK to re-zone vacant land south of the Jackson Street bridge paves way for a new Janesville Boys and Girls Club Center to be built there.

It’s also a step forward for the neighborhood.

It’s land at 921 South Jackson, which is just north of the blighted corridor where the Janesville General Motors Assembly plant property once stood. The city’s owned the small peninsula of vacant, former industrial properties since the 1990s.

It’s the last land in the neighborhood to be rezoned from industrial to mixed business use.

Boys and Girls Club Director Rebecca Veum says the Jackson Street property is at the heart of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods. She says almost 100 percent of youths her group serves now qualify for free school lunches.

The city council has a final vote on rezoning the property December 11.