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Plan supposedly is about as solid as it can get. If this land is rezoned to retail the trust in the oity will be
<br />destroyed. He has talked to a iot of residents and businesses in North Olmsted and has gone down
<br />Lorain Road from one end to another, and he knows what he has said is a conect statement. For the
<br />sake of our city's reputation and trust, and still being a decent neighborhood to live in, this rezoning
<br />must be turned down. The city has had way more than enough retail space, crime, traffic, and sewer
<br />problems, and anyone who says the traffic will not increase because of this is not saying the truth. Ever
<br />since the rezoning of Parcel "E" was proposed, everybody who resides or does business in North
<br />Olmsted on a moderate level, has been negative toward it; he has not talked to one person who has said
<br />anything positive about it. Nobody wants it, includiug the Mayor. If this proposal passes, for any reason,
<br />this city will develop a reputation among the surrounding communities, which is sort of has already
<br />because he has talked to people in these commu.nities, as a suburb that did not take care of its residents
<br />and small businesses, and gave in to the big sliots who came into our community and tumed it into a
<br />retail nightmare just to make big money, which is all they care about. The residents has confidence in
<br />the members, so do not let them down. Mr. Skoulis, the president of Park West Home Owniers, has a lot
<br />of good facts to back up our opinion, and the majority of everybody else's opinion, in the community
<br />of this proposaL They have spent a lot of time communicating with communities surrounding North
<br />Olmsted: for example, the Promenade, we have been consulting with the people who have won that
<br />battle, they have been part of the meetings, the homeowners have been seeking advise from them. He
<br />did not believe that this rezoning should have gone this far and urged the members to turn down the
<br />rezoning of Parcel "E".
<br />Mr. Cahill, 23845 Elm Road, had some questions. He wondered who would be ruuning the store, which
<br />local company would owning this store, who would be managing it and who would be ruuning it, or is
<br />this an outside developer. He was advised by that it would be developed by Brookpark Land
<br />Investments as the developers, a local firm located on Brookpark Road; Home Depot would be
<br />purchasing their store and their land. He was advised that the developer is a part of Forest City. He
<br />noted that these were the same people who let Forest City go when some competition showed up on the
<br />market place. Mr. Cahill stated that he has been a contractor for 15 years, and he stated that Forest City
<br />stores were doing exceptionally well because they could charge anything they wanted to, but as soon as
<br />D.Y.I. and Builder's Square moved into town; they left. He asked what was going to happen if they put
<br />a store in here and there is more competition. He noted that Fretters is out of business, and Sun is going
<br />out of business, there is competition out there, and he wondered if these people could hold up to the
<br />competition that they say that they are going to be able to, or are we going to have a"big box". One of
<br />the developers (not identified) responded that these people had 15.8 billion dollars in sales last year and
<br />if he added up the next five of their competitors, they would not add up to the sales that Home Depot
<br />had. Not only is this a local company where people are shareholders-and stake holders in the company,
<br />own their land, if this goes through, anticipating the dividends and price appreciation of that investment..
<br />There are also employee shareholders, Home Depot makes shares available to their employees because
<br />they believe that they aze stake holders in their busmess, like Borders Books and Music and some other
<br />retailers today, who want their people to have a vested interest in the well being of their company and
<br />they want to shaze that wealth with them It is not a one way street, and when one looks at the actual
<br />numbers that are there, he would see that it is a better retailing concept than a lot of companies. Mr.
<br />Cahill stated that this is comparable with Lowes'. The developer did not know how about Lowes' form
<br />of ownership. Mr. Cahill stated that this store was pretty much like Lowes' or Wal-Mart or any generic
<br />store that sells everything under one roo£ The developer believed that it was important to know that
<br />with 15.5 billion dollars worth of sales a year, they must be doing something better since the hammers,.
<br />saws, etc. are pretty much what could be bought elsewhere, but here is a company that is overwhelming
<br />that sector of retail because of some phenomenon which is giving more value to the customer because
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