The Warrenton Board of Aldermen listened to arguments Tuesday night from local business owners who filed a petition opposing a proposed Transportation Development District.George Eble, CEO of Petro-Mart/Western Oil, Inc, David Baker of Warrenton Oil and Larry Kroninger, owner of Burger King, voiced objections to the TDD at the meeting.“We’re very much against this,” said Eble, who owns the Petro Mart gas station on North Highway 47. “We never heard anything about this when it was filed.”The city is proposing the TDD to obtain funding for a second Warrenton interchange along Interstate 70 approximately 2.1 miles west of the current Highway 47 interchange.The city would need to raise half of the estimated $15 million to build the new interchange, with the other half of the funding to be provided by MoDOT.In July, the city prepared a petition asking voters in the proposed TDD — about 14 residents — to approve the formation of the “City of Warrenton Interchange Transportation Development District” and to levy a 1 percent sales tax, which would be imposed on purchases within the proposed district.The district would include the Wal-Mart SuperCenter and several other businesses located within the immediate vicinity of the current interchange at Interstate 70 and Highway 47, including businesses owned by Eble, Baker and Kroninger.Eble told the board that the TDD would put his business at a disadvantage, but said it would have a greater effect on some of the larger businesses, such as Wal-Mart.He argued that a TDD was passed in Troy and that Wal-Mart had threatened to leave. Troy city officials later rescinded the district.“Have you studied what it’s going to do to the rest of the businesses?” he asked.“If I was Mosers or Kroger, I would advertise ‘Shop here for 1 percent less’ ” he added. “Is that going to help Wal-Mart?”Baker said the TDD is “taxation without representation” and that it is unfair to residents who shop in the proposed district.“It creates a noncompetitive business environment,” he said.Baker wanted to know if there were any studies conducted about the feasibility of the location of the overpass.Alderperson Karen Casserly argued that the interchange is needed because the biggest need in the area is jobs and the overpass would attract more businesses to the area, which would create more jobs and more tax revenue for the city.Casserly read a January 2005 letter to the audience from Baker’s brother, Wayne Baker, supporting formation of a TDD.Baker is president of Fastlane North, Fastlane Central and Holiday Inn, three businesses that were built after the approval of the TDD along Highway 47 that created the infrastructure on the north side of I-70 that allowed that corridor to develop.“I have a hard time with this, because this was a great idea when we went to develop that area,” Casserly said. “Now it’s not a great idea. I struggle with that because I was put on this board for the citizens of Warrenton. And to me, building this extra overpass is only going to help us develop that (corridor).”Baker said he questioned whether there was a need for a second overpass so close to the existing one.“Typically, (interchanges) are five miles apart,” he said.Another concern the business owners voiced was the fairness of having 14 people decide for greater whole of the community.Alderman Gary Auch agreed that he didn’t think it was fair, and brought a motion before the board to place an issue on the November or April ballot that would allow all registered voters in Warrenton to decide on a universal 1 percent sales tax for the city.The motion died for lack of a second.The petition for the TDD will move forward in Warren County Circuit Court. Judge Stanley Williams will hear arguments for and against the TDD and could rule on whether to create the district Aug. 23.