Argument Against the Mall

Housing Values Decrease (Look at the Forest Fair Mall area) 3-20-01

Ruin a Small Town - 3/16/01
I just think it will take the small town atmosphere out of Monroe. My family and I moved here because it was a small and close community, in which I believe will not exist with the new mall!! I also believe that the community can support our new school system without the revenue of the mall's tax exposure, low paying jobs, and city crime that comes with big city livin'. 

- Bridle Creek Resident -

WHY RUIN A GREAT THING
First of all, I just moved to Monroe especially for the quiet and ruralness of the town. I like the fact that it is such a small town that I feel confort in knowing I am safe. I don't think that there are many more places like Monroe nearby in Ohio, and more and more I have seen places urbanized. For instance, look at Mason. They have so much stuff I don't even care to drive through it anymore. West Chester is the same way. If we put in a mall, it will destroy the specialness of this sacred little town. There is a mall just down the street in Middletown, could we not just be happy with that? Building a mall here will just bring in more businesses and industry than we want.

NEW ALLIANCE FORMED TO OPPOSE MONROE MEGA-SPRAWL MALL

Alliance for Responsible Growth & League of Women Voters to co-sponsor public forum on March 15.

A coalition of citizens and organizations representing area residents has formed to fight the proposed new $23 million I-75 interchange and mega-mall in Monroe.  The mission of the Alliance for Responsible Growth (ARG) is to educate the public about the far-reaching costs and consequences of the interchange, the mega-mall, and the resulting unplanned sprawling development.

"The Kyles Station Rd. interchange would use millions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize a huge mega-mall in Monroe that will increase traffic congestion, worsen air and water pollution, hurt existing businesses, crowd our schools, raise our taxes for additional infrastructure, pave more farmland and precious greenspace, and ignite out-of-control sprawling development from Cincinnati to Dayton," said Glen Brand, ARG member and director of the national Sierra Club Cincinnati office.

In an effort to inform the people most directly affected by the proposed mega-mall, the Alliance for Responsible Growth is co-sponsoring, along with the League of Women Voters, a public forum on the impacts of the mega-mall on Wednesday, March 15, 7 p.m., at the Union Hall in Monroe. The panelists will include Monroe Mayor Elbert Tannreuther and David Rawnsley of the Residents Association of West-Central Warren County. The League of Women Voters will moderate the discussion and question-and-answer period.

"Residents of Monroe do not want every inch of our rural land paved with a huge mega-mall that the developer says will bring five times more people and their cars to Monroe than does Kings Island each year. We need to protect our green space, our farmers, and farmland. Once it's gone, we're never going to get it back," said ARG member and Monroe resident Janice King.

 ARG members include Dayton-area residents who have witnessed the negative effects of a mall on their communities. "Beavercreek 10 years ago had its own individual character and rural atmosphere. When the Fairfield Commons mall came in it changed all that. Our roads are now congested with traffic, the number of auto accidents and emergency
 medical calls in the area of the mall have increased, residential property taxes have increased, especially our school taxes," said Beavercreek resident Dave Neil.

"Where there was once green space and trees, strip malls with their expansive parking lots and ugly development now sprawl over the land.  The mall ruined Beavercreek," added Neil.

ARG points out that the mega-mall would also threaten existing nearby malls and business districts. There are six malls (Dayton, Tri-County, Middletown, Forest Fair, Towne, and the Union Centre mall under construction) within a 20-minute drive to the proposed mall site.

Residents nearest to the mall site are especially concerned about the mall's impact on the drinking water aquifer and flooding. Underneath the proposed mall 800-acre site lies the area's drinking water aquifer which is already being over-pumped by sprawl in nearby Mason, and private wells are drying up for the first time in recent memory. In addition, the developer has applied for a permit from the Army Corp of Engineers to "relocate" Miller's Creek and fill in 5 acres of wetlands, which are capable of storing at least 5 million gallons of flood waters. Part of the mall site is in the 100-year flood plain as well.

"A project of this kind and scale would create a major threat to an important natural resource, the union village drinking water aquifer. It would bring about uncontrolled, unstable development in an area already burdened by traffic. Taxpayers want their money used to make travel safer and more efficient, rather than using it to increase traffic, encourage sprawl, use up productive farmland, destroy homes and threaten an irreplaceable water supply," said David Rawnsley, president of the Residents Association of West-Central Warren County.

The Alliance for Responsible Growth encourages Cincinnati and Dayton area residents to contact ODOT before by April 15, the end of the public comment period, to voice their opinions on the proposed Kyles Station Rd. interchange. Letters can be mailed to Michael Cull, Transportation Review Advisory Council, Ohio Department of Transportation, 1980 West Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43223. Faxes (614-644-8662) and emails (mcull) are also accepted.

For more information on the Alliance for Responsible Growth and the March 15 public forum, contact Glen Brand at 513-861-4001.

Now read the:
Argument in Favor of the Mall