Residents are predicting dire consequences after Warren County commissioners declined to put the brakes on a truck stop plan.

The commissioners approved 2-1 Thursday night the Pilot Flying J truck stop site plan with 24 conditions. Commissioner Dave Young cast the only vote against the plan, saying he couldn’t in good conscience approve it.

Pilot Flying J plans to build a $9 million truck stop/travel center on 10 acres that would include 94 overnight parking spaces for truck drivers, a deli, a Wendy’s restaurant with a drive-thru and multiple fuel pumps.

“I’m sure that it just lost me $100,000 in property value,” said Jim Kuschill. “I had to sell a house in these tough economic times when we moved and other folks have as well. If there is any little thing that’s wrong, you just can’t sell … All these homes here, the valuations are just going to go down.”

Young drew applause from the 20 or so people who came to hear the decision, after he expounded on his reason for voting no.

“We have debated this ad nauseam, we have debated this hours and hours and hours,” he said. “And in no way shape or form is my vote derogatory to how anyone else votes. It is just with clear conscience I could not support this.”

Commissioner Pat South said this is probably the toughest decision she has had to make in her 20 years as a county commissioner.

“We were very, very conflicted … if this truly is an allowable use, then can I come up with over 51 percent of the preponderance of the evidence to deny it,” she said. “And I could not do that. It is with clear conscience that I made the motion and voted the way I voted, knowing there are going to be a lot of angry residents out there.”

She said commissioners came up with as many conditions as they could think of to try and mitigate the fact it is a truck stop. Some of the 24 conditions include upgrades to nearby roads, paid for by Flying J and if the Ohio Department of Transportation deems it necessary, as well as extra landscaping, 24-hour video surveillance, electrification systems, and the building must be constructed with cultured stone, brick or decorative masonry.

More than 100 people have crowded the commissioner’s meeting room on several occasions, protesting the development, armed with Power Point presentations filled with research about ways commissioners might deny Pilot Flying J’s plans.

A group of residents hired attorney Tim Mara, who discovered fast food restaurants and overnight accommodations are prohibited in that zoning classification. He thought those prohibitions might stop the travel center.

The commissioner’s resolution states the Wendy’s restaurant is a permitted use but disallows sleeping in the lounge area of the truck stop. Truckers can snooze in their trucks, according to Assistant Prosecutor Bruce McGary.

Resident Tony Collins said the group has spent “in excess of $12,000” fighting the truck stop and expended countless hours researching all the problems associated with these types of businesses. Collins said he is scratching his head over the Wendy’s and the sleep-overs and he is concerned the Flying J won’t live up to the conditions the commissioners set.

“Flying J has a history of not necessarily really living up to their conditions unless they are really pushed,” he said. “We brought that to the commissioners’ attention several times, for example there was a Flying J in Indiana that had to provide security, they agreed with the town but the town had to take them to court to make them do it.”

Flying J Vice President Bill Mulligan did not return phone calls or email requests for comment.

Mara said he hadn’t had time to delve into the 11-page resolution yet, but he thinks his clients have standing to bring an appeal. They have 30 days to file with the common pleas court. The Wendy’s is an appealable issue in his mind and the fact the commissioners prohibited sleeping in the lounge misses the point, he said.

“I don’t think there was much concern there would be people sleeping in the lounge,” he said. “It was people sleeping in the trucks and all the crime that goes on at truck stops. I don’t think we anticipated there would be a problem with prostitution in the lounge itself.”

Just before she left the meeting, resident Laura Alesi said, “We’re not done.”