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LORDSTOWN -- Village council has slowed down legislation that would put into place a temporary freeze on granting any new permits to companies operating trucking terminals in the village.
That's because a vote Monday to consider the legislation instituting up to a 12-month moratorium as an emergency, meaning it would bypass the traditional three readings and become effective immediately, failed.
Rather, the proposal was heard for the first time.
The moratorium is being sought, the legislation states, to allow council, its Planning Commission and Planning and Zoning Department to review Ohio law and village ordinances for businesses operating trucking terminals in the village.
Voting to suspend its rules to allow the legislation to be an emergency measure were Howard Sheely III and Robert Bond.
Against the emergency were Terry Campbell, Lamar Liming, Jamie Moseley and Ronald Radtka.
The matter could impact a development on a parcel of land on state Route 45 near the village's border that is under contract. The land is zoned a mix of business in the front and industrial in the rear.
Dan Crouse is a commercial real estate agent with Platz Realty Group. He has a part in the contract on the land, and laid out his issues with the legislation, from its emergency nature to how it was written, which he said "is pretty nebulous."
"The first problem that I really have is it's an emergency. That's ridiculous. I did a lot of research in a couple days and I tried to figure out what is it that would make it an emergency. Safety? Lots of cars?" Crouse said, adding traffic in Lordstown has "dropped dramatically" in the last 10 years.
"I was a little frustrated by that, (but) I was more frustrated by the way that this was put out there. It's a truck terminal, what is that? Really, what is a truck terminal?" Crouse said.
He said the village's zoning regulations do not define what is a truck or a terminal.
Resident Mark McGrail spoke in favor of the moratorium.
"This is just a pause button, this is not a ban. I keep hearing that word used and I think that's being used for effect, to affect your decision," he said. "This is not a ban ... it's time to take stock in an issue that causes problems for the village, and has caused problems for the village for quite some time."
His main issue, he said, is there is little to no benefit of more trucking companies in the village "because they pay little to nothing to the village in income tax ... and that is our main revenue generation."
If passed, developers of the state Route 45 project "can come in and explain how this is going to be a benefit to the community and then everybody is all the better and then you can move on."
David Wilaj, director of the Mahoning Valley Logistics Council with the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, said a moratorium could stunt economic development in Lordstown.
The intersection of Interstates 76 and 80 just south of the village is where 19% of all freight truck traffic in the U.S. moves through, he said, so Lordstown is "blessed to be in a location that is prime for these types of industries."
"I think if these companies hear any pause, if it's hard to do business in a town or anything like that, they are not going to move forward with the project," Wilaj said.