LAYTON — The Blackners didn't sleep well Thursday night.

Well, you'd have to call it Friday morning, because by the time the Layton City Council meeting ended and they talked to their neighbors and got home and talked and wrote an e-mail to the Layton mayor and got settled for the night, it was 4 a.m.

Mary Ness, who lives down the street, was up until 3 a.m. It was a similar routine: talk about what happened, come home, read some comments on media Web sites, write e-mails to the City Council and go to bed.

By 12:45 a.m. Friday, most of the 150 residents who attended the 51/2-hour council meeting had gone home. Some went right to bed because the alarm clock was set and work would be calling.

But even after eeking out some sleep Friday, residents were still unsettled about the City Council's 4-1 vote early Friday to rezone 70 acres of land owned by Adams Property LLC.

Under gray skies that eventually dropped some rain, Kathy and Tyler Blackner told the Deseret News on Friday that they felt their time was wasted at the meeting, because it appeared the council's minds were made up.

"I wish we could fast-forward 10 years from now," Kathy Blackner said. She wants to know what the future of the land will look like where Adams Property wants to build up to 303 homes and townhomes in a sensitive lands area of the city at about 1450 E. Antelope Drive.

The hillsides nearby and surrounding the property are known for landslides, and the Blackners remember helping their friends who were forced out of their homes by a landslide on nearby Heather Drive in 2001.

"I don't know what happened last night," Tyler Blackner said.

Four hours of that meeting was dedicated to a public hearing during which nearly all of the 25 residents who addressed the council made a plea for a "no" vote.

After what the residents felt were reasoned, logical arguments that centered on the health, safety and welfare of the community, the council voted to start the development process, the Blackners said.

"It makes me wonder what is wrong with the process," Kathy Blackner said.

Residents are looking into a way to appeal the council's decision, possibly by a referendum vote.

The Layton Planning Commission and city staff had recommended that the rezone, development agreement and conceptual site plan be approved.

Bill Wright, the city's community and economic development director, said the development is consistent with the city's general plan.

But the vote wasn't unanimous.