Attorneys for the city of Fort Mitchell and several nearby property owners filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Kenton County Circuit Court, asking a judge to stop the project the same day that Crescent Springs City Council members approved the first-stage development plan.

The Kenton County Planning Commission rejected the proposal Sept. 2 by Bear Creek Capital to build the 46-acre development, but City Council voted 5-1 to proceed and will vote Friday on final approval of the project.

Councilman Nick Berry, who was the lone dissenter, said he opposed the plan because it calls for a 100-foot clock tower to be built at the site, despite city regulations calling for shorter signs.

"We fought hard to get the sign ordinance reduced to 40 feet, and now we're making an exception," Berry said. "What's to stop anyone else from coming in and making exceptions?"

City officials and the Montgomery-based developer are named as defendants, but they downplayed the suit's impact.

"I don't think it will have any effect," said Mayor Claire Moriconi. "We have all the ducks in order."

City Council issued final approval of the development plan in May and entered into an agreement with Bear Creek Capital. But last month a judge ruled in a lawsuit filed by opponents to the center that the city had violated its own zoning regulations because the plan had not been approved within a required timetable and proper voting procedures had not been followed.

The ruling sent city officials back to the beginning of the approval process, which moved quickly the second time around because most of the plans had been developed and discussed.

City officials violated due process and equal protection rights in its second approval, said an attorney representing the opponents, because they had a vested interest to move the project forward after they issued $56 million in industrial revenue bonds to pay for it.

"City Council members are no longer able to be fair and impartial," said Leonard Rowekamp.

Comments by city officials in the media also indicate a bias toward approving the development, Rowekamp said.

The developer said the lawsuit would not delay construction, scheduled to begin next month and the few remaining residents of a mobile home park at the site will likely be gone by the end of this month, as bulldozers begin clearing the site.