After a series of rejections by elected officials and a court battle, a North Huntingdon developer finally has started work on a group of stores across from Norwin Hills shopping center.

WD North Huntingdon Investors is building a multi-lot complex on the hill between Norwin Avenue and Barnes Lake Road. The Jiffy Lube located at Norwin Hills will move across the street to the new development.

Although the developer submitted the plans for the complex in 2006, a string of objections by members of the North Huntingdon planning commission and board of commissioners kept it from going through.

North Huntingdon planning director Andrew Blenko said the initial proposal had an access road for the development coming down the hill and meeting with Norwin Avenue between Sherwin Williams and the current location of Jiffy Lube. The roads would have met close to the intersection of Norwin Avenue and Barnes Lake Road, which Blenko said caused problems.

"You end up with this goofy staggered intersection that four-way stop signs don't work at," he said.

Township commissioners also raised concerns about the plan. Rich Gray, who was president of the board at the time, said township commissioners were worried about the steepness and curve of the access road.

Former commissioner George Fohner said he opposed the development because of the increased traffic it could create.

"It was just a total nightmare because of traffic," Fohner said.

The commissioners voted to deny approval of the plan. WD North Huntingdon Investors re-submitted a modified version of the development, scaling back the site to just include the Jiffy Lube and modifying the access road.

Commissioners rejected the modified version, with the final denial coming at the commissioners' October meeting.

In the meantime, the developer appealed the initial denial before the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas. Judge Daniel Ackerman ruled in favor of the developer, overturning the township's rejection of the initial plan in an early 2007 decision.

Although the township appealed the decision, Kevin McKeegan, a Pittsburgh attorney representing WD North Huntingdon Investors, said the appeals process does not stop the developer from building.

"In Pennsylvania, you're allowed to proceed at your own risk," said McKeegan.

The court's decision was made final last summer, and work has been ongoing at the site for the past several weeks. The ruling allows the developer to proceed with the original plan for the site, which included a Walgreens along with the Jiffy Lube and two unnamed stores.

Because a separate developer plans to put in a Walgreens at the location of the former Chesterfield's Restaurant, the ruling raised the possibility of North Huntingdon having two Walgreens along Route 30. But, said Walgreens spokesperson Carol Hively, that's not going to happen.

"We only plan one store in North Huntingdon at this time," Hively said in an e-mail, noting the new store would go in at the Chesterfield's site at the intersection of Route 30, Lincoln Way and Clay Pike.