After Monday night’s thrashing at the hands of city council, minus Alan Halberstadt, I went home and sulked for a little while. Not because I hate losing, which I do, but because they failed to even acknowledge that we had raised legitimate issues. Sure, it was a lot of information very quickly. I don’t dispute that fact, but the information was there. They got an earful during our presentation, had a hardcopy in front of them and got the opportunity for reinforcement via Halberstadt’s Q&A. Yet they still missed everything we tried to say.
The sticking point for council seemed to be the promised $4.8 million in annual tax revenues and 1500 jobs for the area. Although we had empirical evidence that showed that tax revenues would not cover the increased costs of developing this tract of land, nor would the promised jobs cover the losses in the existing retail sector, council did not want to listen.
Ironically, The Lynn Martin Show was dominated by citizens calling in opposing the Big Box development Tuesday morning. (Thanks to Al McKinnon for bringing this to our attention). I had actually emailed the AM800 Morning Show our power point presentation shortly after hearing Eddie Francis, on his regular Tuesday morning pit stop with Mike and Lisa, applaud this new development then admit that the city was going to need to either cut services or increase taxes to meet the reduced budget. He even had the audacity to suggest that this was the way it was and we simply had no other choice. I’m pretty sure that Mayor Francis sat through our presentation on Monday. Was he not paying attention? If we get the transcript our audio from the Morning Show and The Lynn Martin show [and permission from the station] we’ll post it here for you for those of you missed it.
Though it seems that critical mass is on our side, council has failed to echo the voice of the people. I have a suggestion for council and the Coco Development Group to win back the support of the public -- back the development with a surety bond. Forcing Coco to restore and lease, or dispose of, the old Royal Bank building downtown is not out of the question. The real clincher would be to have them waive all reductions in property taxes for vacant buildings within the city limits. This shouldn’t apply just to the West end retail development, but all vacant property held by Coco Development and subsidiaries. (I know how the numbered corporation game works!)
Remember, their “expert” claimed that Windsor was not over-stored and that we could absorb another 420,000 sq ft of retail “without too much impact” to existing retailers. Alan Halberstadt pointed out a number of buildings that have been abandoned, or will shortly be abandoned, by Big Box retailers. While Windsor is intimately familiar with brownfields – abandoned buildings, especially Big Box stores, known as greyfields -- are a new addition to our failing reality. Taxpayers should not have to subsidize the urban blight of abandoned superstores through reduced taxes for vacant buildings. Let’s see if Jenny Coco and crew are willing to back up their experts testimony with cold, hard cash.
I’m not sure if the city has the courage to stand up to such a “responsible corporate citizen” as the Coco Group, though I certainly hope they try. As for fighting the good fight, it’s not over yet. This was just a zoning change. There is still fight left in the purveyors of SDW and the citizens of Windsor. This development will not go forward uncontested, even if the odds are 10-1.
The sticking point for council seemed to be the promised $4.8 million in annual tax revenues and 1500 jobs for the area. Although we had empirical evidence that showed that tax revenues would not cover the increased costs of developing this tract of land, nor would the promised jobs cover the losses in the existing retail sector, council did not want to listen.
Ironically, The Lynn Martin Show was dominated by citizens calling in opposing the Big Box development Tuesday morning. (Thanks to Al McKinnon for bringing this to our attention). I had actually emailed the AM800 Morning Show our power point presentation shortly after hearing Eddie Francis, on his regular Tuesday morning pit stop with Mike and Lisa, applaud this new development then admit that the city was going to need to either cut services or increase taxes to meet the reduced budget. He even had the audacity to suggest that this was the way it was and we simply had no other choice. I’m pretty sure that Mayor Francis sat through our presentation on Monday. Was he not paying attention? If we get the transcript our audio from the Morning Show and The Lynn Martin show [and permission from the station] we’ll post it here for you for those of you missed it.
Though it seems that critical mass is on our side, council has failed to echo the voice of the people. I have a suggestion for council and the Coco Development Group to win back the support of the public -- back the development with a surety bond. Forcing Coco to restore and lease, or dispose of, the old Royal Bank building downtown is not out of the question. The real clincher would be to have them waive all reductions in property taxes for vacant buildings within the city limits. This shouldn’t apply just to the West end retail development, but all vacant property held by Coco Development and subsidiaries. (I know how the numbered corporation game works!)
Remember, their “expert” claimed that Windsor was not over-stored and that we could absorb another 420,000 sq ft of retail “without too much impact” to existing retailers. Alan Halberstadt pointed out a number of buildings that have been abandoned, or will shortly be abandoned, by Big Box retailers. While Windsor is intimately familiar with brownfields – abandoned buildings, especially Big Box stores, known as greyfields -- are a new addition to our failing reality. Taxpayers should not have to subsidize the urban blight of abandoned superstores through reduced taxes for vacant buildings. Let’s see if Jenny Coco and crew are willing to back up their experts testimony with cold, hard cash.
I’m not sure if the city has the courage to stand up to such a “responsible corporate citizen” as the Coco Group, though I certainly hope they try. As for fighting the good fight, it’s not over yet. This was just a zoning change. There is still fight left in the purveyors of SDW and the citizens of Windsor. This development will not go forward uncontested, even if the odds are 10-1.
