Love’s kills plan for Montana truck stop after outcry from locals

Love’s Travel Stops announced this week that the company will not move forward with plans to build a truck stop near Ramsay, Montana, after years of staunch resistance from a group of residents.

On Monday, Love’s issued a statement on the proposed truck stop along I-90 near Ramsay, a tiny community of about 40 homes.

“For business reasons, we will no longer pursue a travel stop in Ramsay at this time and will shift our focus to other projects that support our plans,” the company said. “We are thoughtful about where we choose to locate our Love’s Travel Stops. Professional truck drivers identified the location along Interstate 90 as an underserved part of Montana for safe, clean and well-maintained places to stop as they deliver essential goods.”

Love’s announced plans to build a truck stop in the Ramsay area in early 2017. Since that time, the Ramsay community fought back, contending that a truck stop would bring crime, pollution, increased traffic, and noise to the town. In July 2022, Love’s received zoning approval to build the truck stop, leading residents to appeal the board’s approval in District Court in Butte. The appeal was still pending when Love’s announced that they would not move forward with the Ramsay truck stop.

The store Love’s planned to build would have had 111 truck parking spaces, as well as an Arby’s restaurant and a tire shop, according to the Independent-Record.

“Love’s recognizes that some Ramsay citizens and leaders took exception to bringing a Travel Stop to the area,” Love’s said. “A core tenet of our company’s values is that our locations maintain strong connections to all communities we serve through local job growth, career development, positive economic impacts and philanthropic support.”

In the video below, Ramsay locals react to Love’s decision to pull the plug on the truck stop.