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Hello, folks - I see you got your second wind on supporting whatever the developers come up with. There won't be a Kohl's, Target or any other department store because - aside from the economics - if there is a MB there is no space for ANOTHER major anchor. Two minor anchors (much less square footage) will go in - the potential Marshalls and Staples. So, once and for all, there will be no department store of any kind as currently planned.

Now, if you look at Park's site plan - they had some architectural renderings in the paper - it won't be so easy to tear down and rebuild. It is going to be more like the Villages development where Wal Mart is in Danvers. It is laid out as a kind of villag-ey kind of place - in other places, around larger cities, these are planned as "new Main Street" developments. Problem is, we still have an active Main Street - no matter how you might marginalize it - in a small City.

As to the environmental issues, he already got over those hurdles - got his permits and order of conditions from the wetlands commission and approved by the City Council. You are right about the issues Damon, and they were not really addressed, so we will have to live with them unless some of the people in the downstream wetlands areas sue Park (for the flooding that is happening even now, during construction, in contravention of the order of conditions) or the Army Corp of Engineers comes in and fines park and stops work until he gets a Section 401/404 permit.

One final thing. Nobody goes into any business venture to fail. But businesses and business people often do - even the most successful. Park has failed before, shopping centers have failed before, etc. It would have been nice if the City Council had taken a little more time to compare Gloucester's conditions to other communities where this type of shopping center has failed and succeeded to get an idea - not even conclusive, just an inkling - of which will happen in Gloucester. But they were so scared Park might reconsider, they didn't take the time to find out - they just decided using the SWAG method. For a development that will have this kind of impact for decades to come on the entire economy of the City - it might have been a good idea to take a little more time rather than be rushed by a developer who was afraid someone would have time to figure out what he was doing and oppose his permits.