Home Depot Saga
December 29, 2007
I’ve spoken with a lot of people about the Home Depot coming to the Billerica Mall. At first I thought only the people around the center cared. Then we placed the poll on WWW.Billerica.org and I realized that a large group of people did care. I appreciate the fact that O’Connor Hardware has been a great asset to our community, but if I owned the mall property, I might have a problem with people telling me what kind of store they would like to see in there. Bob Casey of Billerica First, and now a Planning Board member, contacted us a year and a half ago and had us post a letter trying to build a coalition of folks to stop the Home Depot. Now he sits on the board that makes the decision on whether to allow them to occupy the mall? What do you think about all of this?
All I care about is keeping Billerica Center from gridlock
First of all, our center is too small for a monster Home Depot store. Do you want your kids riding their bikes alongside 18-wheeler trucks?! It’s hard enough dodging cars; nevermind huge delivery trucks!
Secondly, this town could use plenty of other stores. A sporting goods store? Home Goods; clothing? Billerica is big on youth sports and the closest place to shop now is Nashua!
I’d rather see several smaller stores come in rather than one huge Home Depot that will ruin our center’s safety, character and appeal.
Somebody please stand out front of the mall at 5pm anyday and tell me how Home Cheapot can screw up traffic anymore than it is now. If you don’t want home cheapot ….. please move
Why are people worried about O’Conners? It is big enough and stong enough not to be impacted greatly by Home Depot. It will be around long after Home Depot comes and goes (which it will eventually).
Thanks to Billerica First, we now will loose Burlington Coat Factory and 75 jobs. How will those get replaced?
Billerica is a very large town (40K) that lost it’s character when they tore up the center in the 1980’s. Home Depot is not going change anything. Billerica First is about 25 years too late.
Have you noticed what kind of people work at the big box stores . I am all for renovating the mall , bacause it needs it badly , but not at the risk of having an influx of people I , frankly, dont want here . look at Milford,ma.. Small little town 20 years back, Mostly WHITE , Irish and Italian. Now the town has every box store and chain known to man and guess what . Every illegal immigrant from all different countries Swarmed in and took over. Class are setup in the hihh school for non english speaking students, certain areas of town (closest to main street) have been basicall turned into the Ghettos, they have Gangs, and require a bigger police force than some major cities. So I say Screw the lousy 75 jobs, and keep the intergrity of the population in tact. And As far as O’connors goes….. Who really cares if they go out of business. They are the only game in town unless you want to drive to tewsbury to the home depot and so most of their items are overpriced and they knoe that. They had a good run and the people of billerica have SERVED THEM well. yeah yeah.. Sure they have done some good things for the town, contributing and sponsoring this and that , but again WHO CARES, any store that big making that much money should reward the people of the town .. Its not sincerity, generosity, loyality , its GOOD BUSINESS…
Love ya
So let’s start from the top.
If someone is worried about the traffic caused by trucks in our center, I have a solution. Make it maditory for delivery trucks to take Rt. 3 to Concord Road Exit and go up the one way street that vears off to the right instead of going to the mall through the center. If Home Depot notifies all deleivery trucks that this is manditory, it would eliminate truck traffic in the center.
Tami – First of all, if you are letting your kids ride in billerica center right now, without sidewalks (and prob without helmets) then you are already making a mistake. Any parent who lets their child ride a bike in the cetner should be more concerned with having Home Depot adding sidekwalks, so it will be safe.
Also, Tami, that home goods store you mentioned, there will be one. K-Mart will finially turn into a Sears Home Essentials where you can buy all the home good supplies you need.
I do agree with the sporting store idea, but no company has even seemed interested in adding a sporting store. Maybe, the Home Depot will attract other companpies like that to come to Billerica.
David – If you are worried about commuter traffic, it’s a valid concern. Here is my arguemnt to you, a constant flow of people will only give more business to the surrounding companies. Yes, there might be a little bit more traffic, but because of the influx of people, businesses like Coffee Emporium, Atheletic Sports, Mangia Mangia, Friendly’s, among others, will be making much more of a gross profit, which is taxable. Therefore, the increase of tax money profit for the town, would cause gas prices to lower.
As far as the O’Conners arguemnt goes, has anyone heard of lazze fare?
I think the arguemnt about Billerica turning into a ghetto, is a little extreme for the current time, but it is possible.
In conclusion, I think Billerica should have the Home Depot, mainly because I have not heard a strong enough argument against it. If someone can find proof that it will hurt the town economically, then maybe I’ll listen to the arguement.
Have a Great Day.
Tami: Do you shop at Athletic Sports? They don’t have a giant inventory, but they will order anything you’re looking for. And you don’t have to drive to Nashua. There’s no reason we can’t have another sporting good store, though.
David: I’m confused by your comment – you’re calling the store “Home Cheapot,” which sounds like an insult, but you seem to be in favor of the store coming in here.
Jim: O’Connor True Value is a great store, and I agree that it will survive for a while if Home Depot comes in. But Home Depot is too large and in order for it to survive (and in the free market the bigger one usually does), it has to drive out all competition.
The town made an error when it allowed a big strip mall in the middle of town. It is not too late to fix that mistake.
Rob: Home Depot will not create a ghetto, but I do believe that the jobs it will bring will be junk jobs. Part-time, with no medical benefits, which are so important in today’s economy. I don’t believe Billerica is in need of this type of job. Also I hope you are not a xenophobic as you sound in your comments.
Al: Truck routes are not enforceable. Of course Home Depot will agree to whatever truck routes we want, but once the store opens, those plans go out the widow. The truck driver will take whichever route saves him the most time, and the police cannot stop it. The town has no leverage over the store management, and good luck getting corporate on the phone.
Residents have every right to be concerned about traffic. We choose to live in Billerica because it is quiet and safe. No one wants rumbling trucks going by, even when we are sitting snugly in our living rooms. Not all of us have the luxury of living on a cul-de-sac. Those residents who live on a main road should be concerned about traffic and speak up at every opportunity.
Most economists agree that big retail stores are bad for smaller “Main Street” stores. Most of this research has been spurred by Wal-Mart (also rejected by Billerica), but the business plan for Home Depot is similar. But even if you don’t believe that and you still think that more traffic will bring more business to the smaller stores in our center, keep in mind that the Home Depot developer is telling us traffic will go down, not increase, after they build the new mall.
Here’s some proof that big box retail is not necessarily good for towns. Look at the bond ratings of neighboring municipalities. Compare towns that have Home Depot or Wal-Mart, for starters (Chelmsford, Tewksbury, Stoneham, etc.) to those that don’t (Concord, Lexington, Carlisle, Winchester, etc.). You’ll see a big difference. See for yourself at the state’s web site: http://www.mass.gov/Ador/docs/dls/mdmstuf/Debt_OtherFinancialIndicators/moodybond.xls.
Here’s another problem with the economics. The new mall may bring us more tax revenue in the short run, but what about the property values near the mall? Who wants to pay $450,000 for a view of an orange warehouse? Even if property values nearby fall only a few percent, when you multiply that out by dozens (hundreds?) of homes, the net new tax revenue might be a wash.
I like to think we in Billerica are more imaginative than what Home Depot has offered us. Talk about 25 years too late – this site plan would have been great in 1980. But we know better how. Forward-thinking towns are developing land in a way that is sustainable. (Strip malls are not sustainable.) We can deny this permit, and then re-zone the parcel as mixed use. (More on mixed use from MAPC at http://www.mapc.org/whats_new/Regional_Record/May2006/Mixed_Use_Toolkit/Mixed_Use_Citizens_Guide.pdf) This will attract new developers who care about the town as much as they do making a profit. The result will be something we can all be excited about.
Home Depot should be welcomed and for everyone that says its going to take away from the character of the center of town is out of their minds. I wonder how everyone feels about the power plant that they will be building in Billerica by Jack’s junk yard.
That will cause more problems than any Home Depot.
Also for talk about O’Conners struggling how about all the hardware stores that O’Conners put out of business? O’Conners has itself a niche market with all the odd items they sell and the convenience they offer.
What I am concerned about is that the mall with or without Home Depot will not be maintained by the Mall owners. If you doubt it, drive through the parking lot at any time of the year and risk damage to your car.
Ask the various store owners how many leaks they went through during the snow/rain storm of Feb. 12/13. I went to Mall Liquors to buy a card today after work and they had buckets everywhere collecting water from their leaking roof. The counter attendant commented that they had about 18 leaks.
If the mall gets Home Depot, I doubt very much that the current mall owners will take much better care of the grounds/stores after than before Home Depot.
I think we need more dedicated mall owners, if we want to improve what is now and could continue to be a horribe situation.
I’m all for Home Depot moving in. The traffic would increase no matter what business was put in the mall. It’s a ghost town now and there’s traffic. I’d love a Home Goods or a Target, but residents aren’t really given a choice of what they want, right? I, for one, am SICK of travelling to Nashua, Tewksbury & Woburn to get what I need from Hope Depot or Lowes. Billerica didn’t seem to have a problem building 40B housing or using up every 1 acre lot that exists to build new homes now, did they? Now we have a town full of home owners with 1 choice of hardware store?!?! I love O’Connors, but it’s not nearly meeting the needs of Billerica anymore. We’ve outgrown them! Sure, I’d love to have another choice, but if it’s between the ghost town and Home Depot. I choose Home Depot. And who on earth would let their kids ride their bikes on 3A or hang out alone at the mall? Have they ever heard about child abduction? Geez!
If Billerica First is so concerned about why are they not throwing their money into fighting this power plant ??????????????????
OK. I think that a new store in that junk yard would be really nice. Even a Best Buy would be good. the streets around the place are trashed if anyone hasn’t noticed. I mean, does anyone know where our tax money is going?
I agree with Danielle, any strip mall would bring more traffic. But we should all be aware of how much we’re talking about with Home Depot, which generates way more than regular stores. I looked at their traffic study and it says the mall would generate more than 20,000 trips on a Saturday and 4,000 of those will be going down Tower Farm Road. (You probably haven’t heard this yet because the developer isn’t exactly excited to advertise these facts.)
I don’t know about you, but those numbers sound really, really big to me. To put it in perspective, Route 3A has about 30,000 cars per day today and Tower Farm has about 5,000 a day. If I lived on Tower Farm, I wouldn’t let my kids play in the street, but I sure would notice another 4k cars speeding by my house (many of them delivery trucks) and I wouldn’t be real happy about it. And the traffic jam will be so bad, people will start cutting through neighborhoods to get to the mall. They’ll have no choice.
One other thing from the study — the developer is not offering to pay for any new sidewalk, traffic lights, pavement, crosswalks, wheelchair ramps, etc. They’re promising some new road striping and that’s about it. The state requires these things when a roadway is altered (as it will be for the mall), and if they don’t pay, guess what? We’ll have to. It will come from our property taxes. I’m not prepared to do that, especially considering how much money it will cost. Not Big Dig-level amounts, but it could be $3 million, minimum. Why should we pay for all of it while the developer pays nothing but turns a huge profit?
How confident are we that Home Depot will even last? Their business model counts on customers being willing to drive an extra 5 miles to save 9 cents on a box of nails. Gas will be $4.00 this summer. Will Home Depot survive? If it can’t, and the Billerica store goes under, the “new” mall will be a ghost town, and we’ll be worse off than we are now.
Why not have 25 small stores there, that provide almost everything we need, rather than 3 giant ones?
The power plant comment is interesting. Makes me wonder if there will be more hazardous materials on site there….. or at Home Depot. Think of all the chemicals they keep in stock. One teen employee on a cellphone crashes a forklift out back…. I wouldn’t want to own a house at the bottom of the hill.
Look how many vacant store fronts there are in Billerica. If other stores wanted to come here they could have. That would have also brought in traffic. Let’s do the Depot and quit your whining. The Center is an eye sore.
The Billerica “Mall” is a dump. It’s an embarrassment to the town. It’s like going into a bad time warp. Any business willing to invest in the “Mall” should be enthusiastically welcomed. Anyone against this is either a total lunatic or in the pocket of O’Conners.
well what does this town have nothing. look at burlington look at tewsbury we have nothing we need a mall a clean looking area to go to. the mall is a dump its not not a mall its a store.from n.billerica to burlington line we have what? besides a run down strip joint and 21 places to buy or have a beer in a 4 mile strip. been in billerica 40 yrs follow other towns we have to go out of town for most needs walmart sears best buy circuit city and yes home depot and a good place to eat what we have in town 99s 2 of them you want to pay less taxes bring in business you all complain when taxes increase so tell me what we have in town thanks
Ok, well, how do you feel about this?
Robert “Bob” Accomando is running for Selectmen. He is the owner of MA’s Dry Cleaning and Steppin Out Formal located at the front corner within the Billerica Mall. While he has made no bones about supporting the Home Depot intrusion (as he claims it good for Billerica) I learned today that he has made it public (in closed circles) that if Home Depot moves into the Mall he expects they will buy out his lease and move him to a new property. For those of you that don’t believe stuff like this really happens just ask Strombolli’s. This is precisely the windfall they stepped into when Brooks decided to purchase the strip stores, where only Strombolli’s was left holding up the deal. Brooks bought the land and (and land slightly up the road) gifting the second location entirely to Strombolli’s. What happened to Stromobolli’s was pure luck on their part (the right place at the right time), what Mr Accomando is doing is supporting a deal that is bad for the town simply for his own personal benefit.
Now, I ask, should he be a Selectman?
Accomando will remain in the same plaza. He will just move down more towards the Market Basket. He should want Home Depot to move in because he will benefit from it. Hopefully the increased traffic from Home Depot will bring in a lot more businesses into the area. I’m sure we will get another big named restaurant also. Once Home Depot moves in this town will finally be put in a position to improve itself.
I am from Chelmsford but really don’t understand why we need another Home Depot in the area. Isn’t the Tewksbury location close enough? I go there on the busiest of days and they don’t seem to be full or gridlocked. So, why add to an already congested area when the nearest one is close and able to handle all the demand in the area?
We do need the Billerica Mall to be renovated but bringing in Home Depot is not the answer. We have enough of these big do-it-yourself stores closeby. O’Connor Hardware is also a big enough store for most hardware that the average person needs. What we need is some decent shopping and enough with the Jiffy Lube kind of stores. If you drive down 3A in Billerica you see a lot of places to purchase tires, fast foods and groceries but only 1 or 2 that you can shop for your home and clothing for the family. The Burlington Mall is too pricey for most of us so why not encourage some stores in the mid-range price-wise to open stores in Billerica? Billerica Mall used to have some nice stores when I moved here 32 years ago but forget it now. What are the folks who are in charge of this thinking of? Is there a reason why this is not feasible?
Home Depot would be good for the Town. The town
center is an eyesore and most of RT 3A. Most of
the business like Iverson ford Browns corner and Sal’s the buidings still look like the 1960’s and big eyesore. For a big town of 40,000 residents and a busy RT 3A people are turned
off by this. No big name resturants in town or
stores. Look at Tewksbury 30yrs ago RT 38 just
like RT 3A in Billerica was an eyesore and then
somehow they got the property owners to fix and
renovate there property more business opened and
now RT 38 has become very active resturants
stores are doing very good. Something is wrong
here. Billerica is not business friendly. As far
as Home Depot mainly local people will shop there. And we need another hardware store in
town instead of one. Clean up Billerica.
I’m with Jeff. Yes, the current mall is an abomination but we simply don’t need another Home Depot near by, especially in a town center arena. And of coure it would put O’Connors out of business. Do a little web research & you’ll find that where HD moves in, all (ALL) small businesses start closing one after another. A real shame because what we loose when small businesses close is CHOICE and QUALITY. I hope that we can stand up and just say no. And David, I’m against the power plant too
What we need is a creative approach & incentives that will attract niche businesses. Anyone done a marketing survey yet?
I invite Home Depot supporters to take a look at the site plan. I’ll bet most people talking about this project haven’t taken a close look at how big it is — more than one-quarter the size of Burlington Mall. Sure, we need something to replace the old mall, but it has to be the right size, and this proposal is way too big.
I write a column for the Billerica Minuteman newspaper. If you missed them, you can read them on my web site, cantgettherefromhere.pbwiki.com. You can see the site plan there too. If you are in favor of the project, take a look at the plan and tell us what you think.
Make it a Target store!!
To all you NIMBY’s It was a mall long before most of you lived here. There has always been traffic, there always will be traffic( no matter what goes in ). We need the tax dollars. please stop whining, If you don’t want to live near a mall please MOVE
Honestly People, can you tell me that there is no traffic on Boston road right now? Pick any day of the week, and you can not get from the Billerica mall to N. Billerica in less than 10 sometims more mintues. Plus is there anything now in the billerica mall besides Burlington Coat factory, K-Mart, and Papa Gino’s? Last time I looked there were so many empty spaces that they needed to block off the “mall” with a gate. Putting in Home Depot would bring in revenue to the town and Jobs for those who need it. So Stop your complaining, it’s getting old!
Dave and Laura-
On tax revenue: the site is thirty acres. It is an enormous parcel in the most prime location in town. Because the whole development is only one story tall, we can only collect taxes on a total of 350,000 square feet, which is the same as the footprint of the buildings. If it were 2 stories, we could collect twice as much. If it were 3, we could collect 3 times as much.
Let’s say, then, that Home Depot brings us $2 million a year. There are other developers out there, waiting out this decision, who can’t wait to build a project that might bring us $6 million a year. So if we accept a Home Depot now, which the first (and lowest) offer, it would cost us $4 million a year.
Show me someone who always accepts the first offer on the table, and I will show you a person with a very small bank account.
Getting only $2 million a year out of this parcel would be like renting out your penthouse apartment for 20 bucks a month. Wait six months, and you can triple your money. It’s already been 15 years, what’s another few months?
Here are the numbers:
2008 traffic:
Boston Road, 30,000 cars/day
Tower Farm Road, 6,000 cars/day
Mall traffic projections:
Total, 20,000 cars/per day
Number that will use Tower Farm Road: 4,000 cars/day
You think it’s hard turning left onto 3A today? If you do the math, after the mall is built… good luck.
ok you know what? I am on a rage because that mall only has one good thing holding it up. Market Basket! nothing good in there (no offense) and a lot of people who are looking for trouble hang out there. I want that aera to be safe for my kids. Im not saying Home Depot is the right answer, but like me, you’d probably want your kids to be safe too.
I say we build a few more Market Baskets on 3A. Its nice having the wide variety of supermarkets to shop at here in Billerica. I don’t know if I want to go to the clean one, the stinky one, or the cheap one tonight to get my Celeste frozen pizzas. Anyways, heres the answer: Don’t want traffic in the center, but want the home depot tax dollars? Don’t want the power plant in the woods near jack’s junk yard? Simple. Build a nuclear reactor in the back of K-Mart, and put the home depot on the useless contaminated swamp land behind jack’s junk yard. Seems simple enough to me! Lets vote on it!
I said we need to keep Home Depot out of Billerica center. We do not need another hardware store in center of town. If you looked at their traffic study and it says the mall would generate more than 20,000 trips on a Saturday and 4,000 of those will be going down Tower Farm Road. You probably haven’t heard this yet because the developer isn’t exactly excited to advertise these facts. Let them build somewhere else like rt129
Billerica does not need Home Depot.
Yes the Billerica Mall is an eyesore and I believe the town let all the residents down by not going after the mall owners years ago to fix it up or tear it down. That place is a hazard.
There are Home Depots nearby, not too far to travel to go to one.
I don’t want our town to turn into a Tewksbury or be like route 38. Route 3A does not need more trucks or contractor trucks on it, it can barely accomodate the traffic we have now.
i think they shoild have a home depot in billerica but not in the center i think some where that you can see it from the highway when you enter billerica for more money to come in, but i do think we need a billerica mall should be like a mall like before with resturaunts like TGI FRIDAYS, a mall like meadow glen mall or burlington mall so we dont have drive all way around to go shopping for are christmas gifts so billerica can have a chill spot to go shopping and have dinning
I am all for bringing new business into the mall but how about some decent stores, not a giant store like Home Depot. Billerica is full of lube shops, drug stores, supermarkets and the like. We need some different stores. Used to be you could actually shop at the Billerica Mall. Now most of the stores are empty. I can’t believe we can’t attract more desireable stores. We have no choice but to shop at the overpriced Burlington Mall right now.
Quite frankly, I don’t like Home Depot and rarely shop there because the service is attrocious (not true in all parts of the country but I haven’t found one yet in Massachusetts that I would willingly use on any sort of regular basis). On the rare occasions I do use one, the Tewksbury store, which is only 15 or 20 minutes away is certainly close enough.
As far as traffic goes, the idea of making the one way street leading up to the Mall be the only way for delivery trucks to use doesn’t seem very practical. If I’m thinking of the correct street, it’s a narrow street (even since the work done on it) that backs up easily already.
Personally, I’d rather see high quality smaller stores than a few huge stores – places where the idea of actual “service to customers” isn’t a foreign concept.
I vote for a Target…Expect More. Pay Less. They have the a dollar section, grocery area, great health and beauty products, TVs, radios, tents, awesome seasonal stuff, hip clothing, caring pharmacists and even a Starbucks…what more could we ask for Billerica?
Alright…….Lets just tear it down and put a new one up, only with better stores, of course. I mean seriously, who wants our town to look bad?
If you don’t want to live near a mall one word: MOVE. Its the best thing you can do for the case.
Here are some stores that Billerica would be smart to put in the place:
Target: This is even better than Home Depot
Best Buy: My prayers will be answered. Come on, besides Circuit City (which just filed for bankruptcy), Nashua is the closest place for electronics?
Sports Authority: Billerica is huge on sports, right, there you go. I rest my case.
Christmas Tree Shop: Well it almost came, but it didn’t. Look at all that parking, I wonder how many trees they had to cut down to make the pariking lot!!???
D’Angelios: I like Subs…You? I like Mikey’s subs, but we could use some restraunts in there, right?
Ya I get some of you, but what about the traffic. Well if you don’t like traffic, then DON’T GO INTO OR NEAR THE TRAFFIC. Plus, if you saw some of the designers plans for traffic, they would have it all under control. I live right off of Tower Farm, and do you hear me opposing just because of the traffic???? I rest my case.
With the turn the economy has taken I don’t think Home Depot will be breaking ground any time soon. I know they have actually closed stores in other regions like Texas.
Let’s be real. Do we really need a Home Depot right in the center of town? We already have one in Tewksbury which is just the next town over and they are also considering building another one in Lowell. We have Hughes Lumber in North Billerica, Friend Lumber in Burlington and Moore’s Lumber in Chelmsford. I think there are already plenty of choices for building materials.
The reason the Mall is a ghost town now is due to the actions of the current owners not the lack of interested parties. The mall was neglected for years and now the owners want to get paid by selling out to Home Depot. I say screw them.
I would like to see a renovated space that might have an area for young people to go. Maybe with an indoor skate park, batting cages, etc. It would also be nice to have a small movie theater like a Chunky’s and maybe an open dining area with WIFI, coffee shop, bakery, maybe even a bowling alley. Any number of things would be nice but a Home Depot is not one of them.
A Target would be awesome. Not that we probably get to vote. Target is much more upscale than Walmart and we just don’t need another Home Depot. Target would stay in business in good times or bad and it’s a great place to shop for pretty much anything.
Hello Peoples of Billerica.
I am on a mission.
I think the Mall needs a revival, its own economic stimulus!!!
But get this, lets make this mall about the people of Billerica.
Let’s form a collective of concerned citizens, who, imagine this: Volunteer their time for something they care about.
Thats right! man Power baby.
make it a few hours every Saturday, to fix the leaking cieling and renovate the rentable retail spaces, and bring back the FliCK.
The collective of concerned Billerica Citizens would renovate, and then strictly operate the Flick. All proceeds would go directly back in to the community.
With a movie theater in Billerica, that is functioning and operating, it will automatically draw the retail shops.
And what could they possibly be getting for rent, well nothing right now, the mall is empty.
This could be a really special, and awesome opportunity for Billericans to really come together and do something amazing!
Your thoughts……
I got into a conversation with a couple of my co-workers (they are also Billerica residents) about how much we like Billerica and that the only gripe we had is the Billerica Mall. It basically got my mind racing with regards to what that space could be used for. My big idea is to level it and make it a downtown area. Kind of like a typical All-American downtown. A road (called Main St.) would run through it with various shops on either side and angled parking spots out front. There could possibly be a new town common and a few side streets too. What a boon that would be for Billerica and it’s residents. Would create jobs and likely raise property values as Billerica would become even more desirable with a quaint downtown area. A downtown would be amazing!
If you want to read a reader’s feedback
, I rate this post for four from five. Decent info, but I just have to go to that damn yahoo to find the missed parts. Thanks, anyway!
ANYTHING would be better than what is there now.
There are so many stores & restaurants that could come to Billerica that would be appreciated given what we have now.
We have enough Market Baskets, Dunkin Donuts, Chinese Restaurants, Banks, and gas stations
Didn’t realize OConnors had so much pull with what was decided in Billerica. There will always be traffic- there already is.
Iverson Ford is gone now it would be a good spot for a roller rink or a REAL bowling alley maybe that’ll give the kids something to do other than to be driven to the Burlington mall to hang out.
Let Home depot come let anything new come
Work on stopping a power plant