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<br />for retail use, and stated that their answer was a resou.nding "ho". He presented a newspaper article
<br />Wall Street Journal, January 17, 1996) that presented information that discou.nt chains have been
<br />bypassing the vacant shopping centers with the result that vacancy rates and worsening financial distress
<br />for more aging shopping centers, and he concluded that this would if you put up a Wal-Mart and a
<br />Home Depot it would create more empty spaces in the shopping center. This same article maintains
<br />that `?rampant new construction has helped push the total supply_ of retail real estate nationwide to
<br />nearly 19 square feet for every man, woman, and child, double the level of 20 years ago. That number
<br />is too high. It needs to come down." Mr. Skoulis noted that North Ohnsted is at 121 square feet, and
<br />questioned why the city needed more retail space. The article closed with "if the big box tenant goes out
<br />of business, what do you do with that enornious box?" He noted that the city has one, Fretters, and
<br />soon will have -more. In the Demographic Analysis of the Master Plan, Mr. Skoulis pointed out that
<br />between 1980 and 1990, North Olmsted lost 2,282 people or 6.3% of its population. He maintained that
<br />there have been no single family developments in the last five years, only one apartment and two cluster
<br />home developments. The fastest growing segment of the population is the senior citizens: If. the
<br />population is getting smaller, why does the city need more retail. He maintained that the developers
<br />were mainly interested in making as much profit as they can, they care little about the impact that the
<br />development has.on the community, they have the money to hire eacperts to explain how good the
<br />proposal will be for the city, the taxes that it will generate, and how many jobs it will create. He has
<br />been fighting developers for years, including the 3 years he was on planuiug, commission. The
<br />developers give their statistics and prove on paper that what they are proposing is a good deal for the
<br />people, but they do not have to live with the problems that they create. He stated only their elected
<br />officials and the various boards and committees can protect the citizens. He added that the residents
<br />have been fighting these developers for years, and they are asking that the commission not prolong their
<br />agony, that they send a recommendation to council not to approve the rezoning of this land. He also
<br />asked if the commission could send a strong recommendation to council to enact a moratorium on the
<br />rezoning of any more residential land to retail until all the retail land has been used up and all the empty
<br />retail units are filled. He also responded to developers comments on how long it would take to building
<br />offices in North Olmsted, and quoted an article, dated September 15, 1996, in the Cleveland Plain
<br />Dealer, in which they addressed all the areas talked about this evening. He stated these figures were
<br />slightly different. The article stated that the downtown, "class "A" office vacancies will tighten up to 8
<br />t'o 9% in 1997, down from the current 12%". These developers stated it was 22°/a. The last paragraph
<br />addressed the westem subu.rbs and stated that. "I'he west suburban market, which remains sluggish, will
<br />see no_new construction for two to three years", he questioned where they got the twenty year figuxes.
<br />He noted that Biskind Development just purchased the Firestone Estate properiy, for which they paid
<br />13 million.dollars cash, and intend to build upscale homes, and he would like to see upscale homes on
<br />parcel "E". Councilman McKay stated the developers would like people to believe that retailing is North
<br />Olmsted's economic blood, he believed that the residents are the life blood of the community, not retail.
<br />It was stated at another meeting, that North Olmsted needs to compete with Strongsville, Westlake, and
<br />Elyria. Is it the goal of North Olmsted to be the largest retailer in the area? It is not his goal, he is sick
<br />of catering to other commu.nities while North Olmsted gets all the problems. He believed that the
<br />highest use would be :residentiaL Office would give the greater benefit in traffic, taxes, and would be
<br />less troublesome to the neighbors, than would retail. The developer predicted that it would take 20 to
<br />100 years for need for office space in North Olmsted, but this would be a good time for them to
<br />promote office space in North Olmsted, especially since the Plain Dealer predicted 2 to 3 years. He
<br />believed that the values of the homes will decrease. He asked the members if they would like to have
<br />their home over there. He stated that retail produced trash, papers; noise, lights, crime, and traffic. He
<br />quoted the Demographic Analysis from the rnaster plan which stated that the rate of increase in median
<br />house values from 1980 to 1990 was only 36.7% and was exceeded not only by Cuyahoga County's
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