Re: Redevelopment of the defunct Towne Mall

In my opinion all of our businesses past and present, whether established or new are hobbled by over regulation. What regulations? Minimalized signage is a big one! Businesses lining our interstate are virtually invisible to the traffic we want to attract. Can anyone justify the 274 pages of sign, landscape and building regulation down to the inch in the Middletown Development Code?

Council needs to be realistic if they want to attract business. And in the past zoning has often been gerrymandered in order to require zoning change fees for new business to locate even in a business district. What a turn off!!

Our codes need to be streamlined and reasonable.

If Middletown will encourage instead of discourage development then the city will not need to subsidize said developments and will instead reap the tax benefits of having a viable prosperous community. The past failures have involved the city in buying and selling at a loss and eventual demolition of abandoned pie in the sky projects. 

 The city was duped and raped, and learned nothing in the process. How did that happen? The contracts between the city and those who presented themselves as developers had no protection for the city against developer default!! 

 Ah hmm!

Wake up!! Please, please can we stop doing the wrong things?

Maybe, maybe the East End can be a saving grace instead of another failure. Prosperity of all businesses in Middletown will ease the burden of taxes on our resident population, but that is only if our money is properly spent in the designated places instead of frittered away on shysters looking for an easy mark.