LORDSTOWN, Ohio - Valley lawmakers are preparing to rally supporters who are in favor of allowing the TJX Distribution Center project to move forward.

Looking at the real possibility of voters having the final say, Congressman Tim Ryan, State Senator Sean O'Brien and State Representatives Glenn Holmes and Mike O'Brien held a meeting with Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill to discuss what to do next.

"We're not going to take any chances. We're going to be fighting every single day to make sure that this project does happen," said Senator Sean O'Brien, 32nd District.

Their plan is to launch a counter campaign, possibly going door to door and sending out mailers to remind voters why the TJX Distribution Center project is important to the village, county, and region.

Mayor Arno Hill says the village needs economic diversity with General Motors now down to just one shift. He believes the opposition to rezoning land at Hallock Young and Ellsworth Bailey roads will likely fail if voters are asked to weigh in.

"The ones who are saying, 'Well, we're going to win', I don't see them ponying up to want to help paying the bills around our community," Hill said.

Congressman Ryan says he recently held private meetings with concerned homeowners and some have changed their mind about opposing the project.

"This is a transformational project for our entire community and I think this company has really bent over backward to accommodate the residents," Ryan said.

Nearby property owners have expressed their concerns about noise, lights, traffic and possible water runoff from a future TJX Distribution Center site.

TJX is offering a buffer zone of 100 to 130 acres of land between where the distribution center would be built and nearby residential property. 

Ryan said the land would be donated to the MetroParks or the Western Reserve Land Conservancy so that the open field and wooded areas that lead up to homeowner's properties remain intact. 

"There's not enough. This road is one mile long. They're going to take a fourth of it," said Ray Kovac of Lordstown.

Kovac lives down the street along Hallock Young Road. With two sump pumps in his basement, he worries about underground water moving down the road and into vulnerable properties.

He signed the petition that has 1,050 signatures in support of a referendum which could lead to a special election August 21.

"We think we're going to get enough to sign this and we hope it goes on the ballot," he said. "We hope enough people vote on it so they can keep industry where industry belongs."

Like others, Kovac wants the jobs in Lordstown but doesn't want to see land rezoned from residential to industrial to bring them to the village.

A petition organizer says he expects another 12 people to sign the petition calling for a vote on the rezoning of the land before he files the paperwork with the village clerk on Thursday afternoon.