Montgomery County supervisors announced today that the county will file suit to block the state-backed Norfolk Southern intermodal facility planned for Elliston, which officials have said is key to economic growth in the state.

In a statement released this afternoon, the county said the suit would "challenge the intermodal facility's constitutionality" and the state's plan to contribute about $40 million toward the site's $50.5 million price tag. Annette Perkins, chairwoman of the board of supervisors, also accused the state of turning its back on fierce local opposition and raised questions about whether the county would benefit from the Roanoke Region Intermodal Facility.

"The state has ignored our concerns about the harm to our quality of life and environment, increased traffic and other negative impacts such a facility would have on the rural character of the village of Elliston," Perkins said in the statement. "We have serious questions about hte purported economic and employment benefits to this region touted by the state, and particularly Montgomery County."

Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer and a spokeswoman for Norfolk Southern were not immediately available for comment.

Supervisors met for nearly two hours in closed session Monday night with County Attorney Marty McMahon but declined to detail any plans for litigation. The board is barred from acting on motions or ordinances in closed session, but McMahon said the board decided to take legal action through consensus.

McMahon did say he expects to file the lawsuit by next week.

The timing of the announcement, which comes just a week after state officials announced plans to locate the facility in Elliston, underscores the broad opposition to that proposal that both county officials and activists have mounted for two years. Supervisors have urged state officials in four resolutions to oppose the facility, and they have met six times this year in closed session to discuss probable litigation.

An intermodal rail yard transfers trailer-sized containers between trucks and rail cars. This intermodal facility will be part of the Heartland Corridor, a $249 million project that aims to move doubled- stacked freight containers between Columbus, Ohio, and Norfolk faster and more efficiently.

The $40 million in public funds set aside will be used in part to build a highway that will connect the site to Interstate 81. About 10 houses stand in the path of the proposed highway, and activists urged supervisors in April 2007 to adopt an ordinance that would block use of eminent domain if a corporation stands to benefit.

A state study says the yard itself will employ about a dozen people. Businesses attracted by the rail yard could generate anywhere from 740 to 2,900 jobs in a nine-county, five-city area from Lynchburg to Radford, and from Franklin County to Monroe County, W.Va., according to the study.

Other opposition to the facility centered around the increased truck traffic expected along I-81.

Supervisors never took up the activists’ ordinance, and according to county documents, Supervisor John Muffo expressed concerns about the potential cost of eminent domain litigation if it were to reach the Supreme Court. In Blacksburg, a suit filed to block a proposed big-box store has cost the town about $147,000 in legal fees, as of July.